GI353: From $500 to a $12M Real Estate Portfolio with Andres Bernal

GI353: From $500 to a $12M Real Estate Portfolio with Andres Bernal

Andres Bernal is a Dominican-born real estate investor, entrepreneur, and Founder of Sky Circle LLC, as well as a former professional tennis player who built an eight-figure real estate portfolio from the ground up. After immigrating to the United States with just $500, Andres purchased his first property in 2016 and quickly transformed that single deal into a powerful wealth-building engine. Today, he has completed over 50 property flips between 2024 and 2025, owns 60 rental units across Section 8 housing, student rentals, and traditional tenants.

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Transcript:

Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host, Charles Carillo. Today, we have Andres Bernal. He is a Dominican-born real estate investor, entrepreneur, and Founder of Sky Circle LLC, as well as a former professional tennis player who built an eight-figure real estate portfolio from the ground up. After immigrating to the United States with just $500, Andres purchased his first property in 2016 and quickly transformed that single deal into a powerful wealth-building engine. Today, he has completed over 50 property flips between 2024 and 2025, owns 60 rental units across Section 8 housing, student rentals, and traditional tenants. So it’s great to have ’em on the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Andres:
Yeah, it’s a, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Charles:
So tell us a little bit about yourself. We’ve had a few professional athletes on the show, but can you tell us a little bit about yourself, both personally and professionally before, you know, 2016 and getting involved in real estate investing?

Andres:
Yeah, so I played I played professional, I played tennis, you know, my whole life since I was like nine or 10 years old. And I went to college, college on a scholarship. After that, I decided to move to the United States and to, you know, pursue my dream of playing professional tennis. And I did thankfully I played for almost a year, two years, and it was, it was great. Great. A lot up, up and down. And before 2016, you know, real estate was always in my head. My grandfather’s a my, my godfather’s a big builder in Dominican Republic, and I see like, you know, he has a nice house <laugh>. He has a nice bathrooms and like, he has this nice car. It’s just like, it was always like in the back of my head and one day burn. I think everybody starts because of the burnout.

Andres:
Nobody wakes up and say, I’m gonna invest in real estate. So I was teaching tennis at the time and 50, 60 hours a week, and I’m like, I’m, I’m, this is not the American dream. Like this is not what I came for. And then I started to look online and I found, you know, I found stocks, businesses, and real estate. So I am like, huh, let me, let me just see. And I got very curious. Then I got obsessed to learn. I got, I got a couple courses and I will say I just started, you know, I was, when I started that I was like 2015. And I, I bought my first condo in 2014, but I started investing in 2016. So I, I always had the bug and I’m so glad that I did.

Charles:
Was there a reason other than your family member being involved with real estate to choose real estate when you got here? Or did it just, I, it’s funny with real estate, when you speak to people about your investing in real estate, if that’s just what you leave it with, people will tell you they’ve made, they’ll know someone, everybody knows someone that makes a bunch of money in real estate, whether they own whatever they’re doing in there. Someone makes a lot of money that someone knows. And that’s just kind of something I’ve found over the years of talking to people about real estate investing.

Andres:
Yeah, no, absolutely. I, I think there’s always a family member as an uncle godfather, your, your parents. And I think that he never, my godfather never talk about the business itself because I think he didn’t, he never wanted to talk about business and the money he had made. Like he, he wanted to be recognized as a, like human being and person, like a, you know, so we had, again, he played tennis, that’s how my dad met him. He became my godfather later on. They, they are like, you know, brothers at this point. But but yeah, it, he, I, I think I saw firsthand from him and my dad buying a commercial building when I was living in Dominican Republic. And he always tells me like, it’s, it’s an effort now, but you’ll see everything later. And, you know, when you’re 12, 13, 14 years old, you don’t understand that.

Andres:
But I think it’s, it’s very important that if for your listeners, like if you have a, if you have a son, if you have a daughter, or if you have someone, you know, even a nephew that is growing up and you’re investing in real estate, always don’t be afraid to talk to them about it. Because regardless if they go to Hollywood or they, or their attorneys or they are technicians or plumbers or whatever, investing in real estate can give you the choice to retire early. Like, I, I could retire, you know, go anywhere, live anywhere, but you have to plant the seed now, and you have to be able to pass that torch along. Like, don’t, don’t keep it to yourself. People think that real invest in real estate when you talk about it, it’s boring, but try to make it fun and try to make it for your kids. Try to make it like, you know, if you put a dollar here, you’re gonna get this back. Like, try to make it super simple. And I mean, I’m, my kid is two, almost three years old. Next year I’m starting <laugh>.

Charles:
Nice. Yeah. Nice, nice. So let’s talk about what you kind of have going on now. You built a team of to flip 50 properties in two years now, flipping properties. I mean, it’s a, it’s definitely like, it’s, it’s definitely, it’s an intense business. I mean, especially if you’re doing 25 of those a year. Can you talk to us a little bit about the team you’ve put together and how your team looks now for doing all these flips?

Andres:
Yeah, so we have right now about 12 contractors. And they are not specialized. So they are, you know, carpenter, painters, you know basic plumbing, basic electric. And then I hire everything out The way that I, I build my team was like, I hire one person and then I hire another one. And then I asked, I asked them if there’s any other friends that it’s a contractor are looking for, for jobs. And, and then we start growing. And now that’s, that’s on the, on the flipping side. On the rental side, we have three, four members right now that work part-time. And they manage all 60 units. So I think that people wanna start a big team or people wanna start a team and they don’t know where to start. But the easiest way is just to ask where you can ask, ask your friend and family ask on social media, Hey, I’m looking for this.

Andres:
And even if you don’t have, this is ano, this is, I’m actually got invited to speak in an event and they want me to talk about how to build your team. And even if you don’t have, let’s say, the amount of flips that we have, and yet let’s say you have 10 units or five units, you can hire someone to do work on the 10 units. The same person can do your any flips. And then the same person can even, you can get a GC license if you have experience and you can start, you know, doing work for other people. And that’s why I’m actually, sometimes I do that when, when the season is a little slow. So there’s many things that you can do with a, with a contractor’s team

Charles:
That makes perfect sense. There’s two, the larger investors, when I started investing in New Britain, and one of them was both of ’em were contract, they always did flips on the side. ’cause They’d have their teams, their crews, right. And they’d be contractors. And I always found that as a great way of doing it because one of the issues I always found when I did a few flips, and then also when we had our, you know, our smart small portfolio growing it, the thing was that it was getting, like having the help to do the work. You know what I mean? Consistently there and the amount of time you spent just to get the handyman in there and do stuff. So obviously the more work you give them, the more consistent you can bring them on. So it’s different if you’re like, Hey, you’re working over at, you know, our flip over here. Hey, at 3:00 PM can you head over here and like do this faucet and do this and that? And you’re like, that’s

Andres:
Exactly what we do. <Laugh>.

Charles:
That’s how it has to like that when I saw them doing it, I, and they would like give me like tips. ’cause You could still contact, I would contact them. I had all their numbers if I needed something additional. And they would always be helpful. But I always found that, and I was like, that’s the way, like you have to, you have to have those people like full-time. You’ve gotta like tear the bandaid and get ’em in there full-time. And like really that’s, you gotta have the flips really to keep your other portfolio going, or you’re just gonna be all day long trying to find person to show up, trying to find something to do this paying full retail price, you know, like yellow page pricing type thing. And you’ll never make any money doing that.

Andres:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s also, another way a lot of people don’t know is sometimes, like there’s a new, there’s a, not new contractors, but they started a new business. They’ve been working for other people and they start a new business and they might have one or two guys, but the season is really slow. So they are willing to take sometimes an hourly pay until they can get more jobs. So that’s another way to, you know, to start to start building a new team. You can say, Hey, you know, I don’t flip, you know, maybe full-time right now, but I have jobs here and there. Can you, can you and just ask if you can pay them on an hourly basis. And when they’re slow, especially the winter they, they will be so grateful. They might not be available for you, you know, 24 7, but they’re gonna be available when you call ’em. Yeah,

Charles:
Yeah. If it’s an emergency, it’s a little different. But if it’s something where we’re flipping a flipping a unit or something like that, you want something to come in I mean that’s, that’s where it kind of works. And the key, the more business you give them, the more flexible I guess they are around your wants and needs as I have found over the years, which makes perfect sense. You know what I mean? It’s like having a bigger client, you know what I mean? Yeah,

Andres:
Absolutely. Let’s talk about right

Charles:
Now. Well, let’s talk about right now your flipping properties. I know you also have some small multis. I started with three family properties three and fours and five unit properties. Can you tell us a little bit about what you have going on in Connecticut now for maybe some of your long-term holds outside of your flips?

Andres:
Yeah, so I own about six 60 units maybe 58, 59. But it’s mostly three units. I have maybe like five, four units and then I have a few duplexes, and then I have a bunch of single family. And the reason why I have single family is because I do a lot of student rentals throughout. I am in three universities in Connecticut. So it’s, it’s definitely a great business. And yeah, it’s,

Charles:
Let’s talk about the student rentals. It’s not something, I mean, I’ve had people on before that tell me about like student rental developments, but hands on the, you know kinda boots on the ground type student rental as you being a manager too, with those in single family, not in apartment complex. Tell us a little bit about how you structure leases how you do, because usually the person that’s signing in the lease is not the person living there or the person you’re really, you know, that’s, that has the weight behind. Signing in the lease is not the person living there. So how do you structure applications? How do you structure leases with this? How have you become say, more successful over the years of doing it and like maybe adjusting how you rent the students?

Andres:
Yeah I love student rentals and the way that I structure my leases are I get, typically I have four to five students and the parent co-sign or somebody related to them, and we verify all the parents’ credit score, at least one of ’em, just to make sure that they can pay. I have never missed a rent payment since 2016. Not even late. Not even, not even one month late. Because again, most of the times I, I rented to people from three, three universities and they’re more on the affluent. I mean, these are colleges that, you know, it’s 60, 70,000. So the chances that they don’t pay me, it’s very, it’s very little. So I don’t target community college. I target more growing universities. The o the other thing that I do I keep a very tight management as far as, you know, parties and all that.

Andres:
Like my, my kids try to not create any troubles. I had never been called by the police. And that’s a big myth in the student rentals. I, I tend to rent to girls ’cause you know where the party starts, right? It’s the boys house. But you cannot discriminate. So I don’t discriminate. I just try to target more of the, the girls section. And my advertising is also, I don’t, for the most part, I don’t have to advertise because what I do is I, I keep renewing with the students and when they graduate or they study abroad or anything, I always found tenants because I have such a large network where I am, there’s, there’s so many Facebook groups now where I am that you can post and you get people reaching out. Now the key for student rentals is timing, and this is the timing and location.

Andres:
So location is, you want to be at least, I want to be 10 minutes walking from the university, no, farther than that. Why you’ll eliminate parking. You don’t have to have parking, you don’t have to have transportation, just, they just walk. And then the second thing is that I try to always, what was the second thing? So what was the loc location, the so location to 10 minutes away. And oh, and then I try to always ran to students that other people know. So I ask, so I ask, right? So one of the things that I do is I ask all my other students, Hey, do you know this person? No. Can you gimme a reference? Because sometimes you get students and then you get a bad, you get a group, and then you don’t know. You don’t know what you’re doing. And, and I, I have had experience where even the students have provoked a lot of distress in my management, you know, style. So I, I always look for references for people that, that they know. And if they have, if if they don’t have anything bad to say, then obviously I, I tend to rent it to them.

Charles:
Interesting. Yeah, no, that’s a great way of doing it. Yeah, the walking, when, when I lived off campus in college, the parking was always a pain. So if you lived off really close, you could walk it made it so much better, you know what I mean? And it’s obviously you can dramatically charged more for that rent as well.

Andres:
Yeah. My, all my student rentals are within 10 minutes, all of ’em.

Charles:
So for some of your long-term rentals, I was reading that you work with section eight properties and it’s not something that I’ve worked with before. I’ve tried working with Section eight one time a new brand like Housing Authority, and it didn’t go over that well, <laugh> so much time it took to get apartments approved. And then there was like an inspection list of a couple small things. Anyway, so what would you say, I mean, when I speak to Section eight investors, the main benefit I always hear is the guaranteed rent. But what are some of the drawbacks of working with Section eight housing over in, in your kind of history of doing it? Yeah,

Andres:
The first thing is section eight is not guaranteed. That’s, that’s for me is one of the biggest myth. Why? Because if you fail inspection, they will not bring you the check and inspection can fail by carbon monoxide or like smoke detector or even like they don’t want any locks in any bedrooms. So like, even very simple things. So, and that’s one of the drawbacks for, in my opinion, with section eight, which is the inspections. Now, if we’re talking about that is more secure and is more guaranteed rent in the, in the sense of like, section eight will pay, the government will pay. Yes, absolutely. And also the tenant portion, because Section eight typically doesn’t cover a hundred percent. Most of the time they cover, I will say between 90 and 95% of the rent, the portion of the 10. And they don’t mess with it because if it’s a hundred, $150, they don’t wanna lose their vouchers.

Andres:
So they, they always pay, in my opinion, I have maybe like 22 section eight. And they’re, they’re great. The other thing is the level of education that they have, it’s a little bit tricky to gauge if they’re gonna keep your apartment in good shape or not, because for me, the level of, of education of a person means, you know, for me how clean they are, how they’re gonna treat, how they’re gonna treat your apartment. So you would never have, at least in Connecticut, you will never have trouble se renting to section eight. But you have to kinda educate them as much as you can, like, like any other tenant. But Section eight stating the obvious, like, you gotta keep the apartment clean, you know, you cannot leave the trash here and, and all that. So I think, I don’t have, a lot of people don’t like Section eight because they have to work a little bit harder, but as an investor, you gotta choose what, you know, why you’re gonna go for

Charles:
True. Yeah. You have what are you gonna do? You’re gonna deal with the government a little bit more and have them inspect everything and kind of, you know, roll the dice every time they come through because there’s some things that you can’t control or that you’re gonna pick out that you don’t know what they’re gonna pick up on when they come in. And the second thing too is, or you know, when rent’s due, you’re, you know, if you’re just renting to a traditional 12 month tenant, I mean, you have that too, that you don’t know if you’re gonna get paid. So it’s, it’s, it’s one or the other. In my story with Section eight, I was renting it, it was February, and my property manager was, you know, they came through, we waited three weeks for this inspection, and then they said they want me to paint parts of the foundation ’cause there’s a little bit of chipping paint. Mm. And we’re like, it’s actually impossible to paint outside in February. So <laugh> Yeah, yeah.

Andres:
<Laugh>,

Charles:
Yeah. In Connecticut. So March

Andres:
People, even, even now, yeah, the weather has been cold and yeah, even now in March, it’s, yeah.

Charles:
So it was like, the apartment was beautiful, everything was great. I, this apartment, real hardwood floors had pocket doors. It was beautiful. This one and the thing that was, that enough, everything inside was perfect. We did such a great job. But then that, and it’s not like they’re gonna like circle back that day after you like, change those locks or put up that, you know, CO2, you know what it’s, it’s gonna be like it’s weeks, it’s weeks on the road, you know what I mean? And then you’re just, you don’t, you don’t know if you’re getting the same person. You don’t know what they’re, they might pick up on something else. You know what I mean? So it’s, it’s a difficult game in that sense. But I’ve met a number of different Section eight investors who swear by it.

Andres:
Yeah. So now there is, section eight is hiring, hiring third parties now, and for, I mean, for a long time. And those third parties just do housing. And in my, I have great relationship with those third parties because they know that I own a good amount of units. And like if I, every year we increase it, they, for the most part, they never deny my increase, even though it’s not a lot. But they never deny if I have an inspection and something fails because they know me and I have built that relationship, they come in the next week. Like if, if I call them, if, if it’s something quick. Now there, I don’t have experience with all the housing authorities throughout Connecticut. I have experience with five five, and they have, they have always been great. Now, when you have housing departments, they cover so many regions and so many tenants and, and so many, and sometimes like a whole county, it’s impossible. So yeah, it all, it all depends what is your what kinda third party when the tenant moves in, bring with them, it’s working with them. Yeah,

Charles:
No, that makes perfect sense. It’s one of those things of having, it’s an unknown kind of scale of economies that you have there. By having more units, you are getting favorable, more, you know, a relationship with who you’re working with. And that could be with the city, that could be with the Section eight. Can you just give like a quick overview until, and we’ll move on, but with Section eight, if listeners don’t know about how Section eight works, there’s housing authorities, there’s people that are getting on a wait list, can you explain kind of from the renter’s view kind of how that works in a nutshell? High level?

Andres:
So section eight is when the government subsidize their rent. The, the government pays for their rent because they show that they’re low income, you know, they’re low income people, and they go based out of the, their tax returns and out of e every income. So when they prove that they’re low income, they are on the list. And when there’s funding available, they, they either get the voucher, which, which is a voucher, is just a check, let’s say that is, goes directly to the landlord. They don’t, they don’t see it, but goes directly to the landlord, and then they pay a portion of the rent, depending on the level of income. So the less money they make at their jobs, the more money typically covers. Now section eight, they don’t always guarantee that if you make less money, they’re gonna cover more. It’s just, they just give you an amount and that amount is what you have available. So the tenant, for the most part is the one have to find the housing with that voucher or check, and it’s, and then they go, and then they make an agreement with the, with the landlord to see how much they’re paying, they’re gonna be paying or how much it will be covered.

Charles:
It makes perfect sense. It’s, it’s also one thing we found out is that there’s other men, other programs out there, maybe they’re not from the government that cover people’s rents. We had one in Connecticut, we had one house, three family that was, we had people that were battered women from Prudence Crandall, which is a facility or a house in new Britain, Connecticut. And the thing though was that they would pay for the tenant’s rents through there and they never missed and stuff like that. So it gives you, for women to get back on their feet, we would offer ’em a place to live, everything like that. And they would cut the checks directly to us, you know what I mean? So, and then they’d have to pay back. So there’s, there’s different programs. If you know your area well, there’s different programs that you can get on involved with that are gonna be a little bit more guaranteed, let’s say, of rent collection versus maybe a c class tenant that is like, most of ’em are, are sadly paycheck to paycheck. Yeah,

Andres:
Yeah. You gotta, you gotta screen really well, especially these times in the winter I scream more thoroughly even though I have less renters. But that’s one of the things, because of that, we have almost a hundred tenants and we haven’t, it’s very rarely we haven’t done, we have done maybe one eviction. We try to work with the tenant. For the most part, if we put tenants in there, there’s like a 95% chance that we’ll pay according to our records. But it’s because we screen thoroughly and we rather kinda wait for that tenant to be a good fit for our properties.

Charles:
No, that’s great. That’s, that’s one benefit that, I mean, you manage your own property, so you’re renting to your own tenants. But the thing though was that for some newer investors, they’re in a rush to get someone in that unit to try to cover their mortgage for that month, whatever it might be. And I got caught in there before, you know what I mean? Putting tenants in and I bet you did too. That’s why you tight screen. No one just starts with tighter screening. Oh

Andres:
My God. I can, I can tell you so many stories <laugh> when I hear them about horror. Oh my God. Yeah.

Charles:
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Charles:
If you love real estate, you like the idea of passive income and believe that income producing properties will appreciate over time, go to invest with harborside.com. That’s invest with harborside.com. So the screening is super important, and also it’s even more important for screening. So once you hand over those keys, you know what I mean, they get, the tenants now are receiving, they’re becoming, they’re a renter of yours or a tenant and they have so many more laws and regulations now that you have it. So you have to really vet them. And I never, we know we would do it kind of not as thoroughly as we do it. Now, when I was starting out and I had a friend that was a real estate agent broker in New York City, and he would tell me how thorough, because you can’t evict the people, you know what I mean?

Charles:
So we would say people would come with a whole year of rent and they would turn ’em down, right? They wanted to make sure that they’re from certain states that they could collect money from in a judgment. They could do this, they did that. They had all these signers on it, and it was just something you’re like, oh, wow. It’s like when you’re getting in the states where it’s much more difficult, let’s say more let’s tenant friendly, which I would consider Connecticut and most of the Northeast, that’s something that you have to be very thorough. ’cause Once they’re in there, they’re in there for at least three or four months.

Andres:
Yeah absolutely. And once they are in there, in order to get them out, it, it’s, you know, it’s easier to give them some money. So for them to move out, then going through an eviction process. Exactly. And if you are in the winter for, I mean, forget about it, you are not gonna get ’em out. And what bothers me the most about tenants that don’t pay is that the fight that they gave, they gave you and the entitlement that they have. Like, okay, let’s say that you lose your, for, for example, real real example I have a tenant. I had a four UI have a four unit in infield Connecticut, about an hour away from, for where I live. That tenant had the husband moved out and they were getting divorce and she couldn’t pay. She was pregnant, and she had a kid, it was December, ran, I told my team, give, give her a break.

Andres:
Like, do not mention anything about eviction on in December, it’s cold, it’s Christmas. Like let’s just, she has a heart on, on herself. And then in January we come back and we, we, we talk about it and comes January. And we said, Hey Amanda, you know, unfortunately you’re gonna move out, but this is what we’re gonna do. And then we work them with her to help her to actually move out. And she moved out, you know, but you know, you have tenants where they, they know their loss and they wanna fight. And at the end of the day, I feel terrible for them because as a landlord, let’s say that an eviction costs you 10 grand or 50 grand, of course is a, is a, your cashflow can be done. But for them it’s on the record pretty much, I don’t know if it’s forever, but for a long time. And that they don’t know how bad it is. Like, no landlord, I don’t, I don’t care what the eviction was for. I don’t I don’t rent to people that, that have been evicted. I’m sorry. I don’t wanna take the risk. And, and I say it publicly because I don’t know, I don’t know what happened. And if a person was willing to maybe fight for an eviction, then you know what, what comes to me? You know? So Yeah.

Charles:
Yeah. I’m, again, I’m all about second chances. It’s just not on my dime, you know what I mean? So it’s one of those things as I’ve been burnt so many times on that. So, but that’s a whole separate podcast. And they burnt on tenants. Yeah. But yeah, that’s the thing we always used was cash for keys. And I was always amazed at how I had a number in my mind, and a tenant would usually always come below that, you know what I mean? So it would just be like, you have a number in your mind of what I’m willing to give this person, you know what I mean? When this place is cleaned out and they’ll give you a number and you’re like, perfect, let’s do it. And I’ll even give you more if you’re out by this day. And like, I can walk through and Yeah.

Andres:
Just, I, I’m actually curious, what are they, what, what are they numbers they gave you back that day in Florida?

Charles:
Years in the day? So if I had an apartment that say it was like a thousand bucks or something, you have some people that say like $500, you know what I mean? I have some that say, and you’re like, you know, like from your lost rent and stuff, I’m, I’m willing to give you like two months of rent. You know what I mean? Like without a question in cash, you know what I mean? And pretty much you come back on this day like, we’ll keep in contact ’cause I don’t wanna be ghosted. I’m gonna give you two more weeks. Right. Or one week to find out what’s going on. Right? I don’t wanna come back in two weeks and all your stuff’s still there, you know what I mean? Like, I wanna walk through, I have cash in hand, you’re gonna sign like a lease termination, you’re gonna sign this receipt, blah, blah, blah.

Charles:
You know what I mean? And we’re so, so if we, she, you know, they’re like, oh, they, you know, they kicked me out or something like this, you know what I mean? Like, no, well, you, you sign the lease termination, here’s your receipt for the cash, whatever it might be. And then they’re, they’re good to go. But it was, it’s usually like, you’d have people that come back like one month, you know what I mean? Because they’ve, they already owe you money. So most people I found were not really like, juicing it, you know what I mean? And I’ve heard really bad, but like I said, our, our tenant screening was very good, you know what I mean? But you find that tenants would go bad, especially in c class, there’d be a set time, and it would usually, it’s usually it would end up negatively, you know what I mean?

Charles:
Whatever it was, where people will, they just go out on some, in certain properties, like we were talking about before, just magnets for bad tenants, you know what I mean? And I could never figure out, like, you’d figure it out. Like we were talking about before when I bought my second property, and it was like a couple blocks this way, and it did so much better than this one over here. Same quiet, like same type of quiet street, everything like that. But ones that had a certain number of bad bedrooms, you would have a higher retention, you know what I mean? And I found out that when we were renting three families, three bedroom houses with, you know, enough parking in back, not like huge parking lots, but like enough parking in back for three or four cars, you know what I mean? For those three units, you kept people for many years and your turnover was so much less.

Charles:
And I think everybody has to figure that out for their, for their, for their area. Yeah. If we were in like a more expensive area, or a more downtown area, maybe one bedrooms would be it. But my dad taught me years back, he’s like, in this area, you have to buy with parking. You know what I mean? That’s just how it is. The te you typically do not want to have tenants in this area that don’t have cars. You know what I mean? So these things go with every area, and it’s different. Again, if you’re going into more downtown area of like a major city, yes, there’s gonna be a lot of one bedrooms, parking’s not really a big thing, all this type of stuff, but you know, your transportation’s much better. But I think it’s like you, there’s not really a way of knowing this before you buy property. It’s kind of like buy a property, figure out where it is, and buy a property. And like, I know we were talking about before you were selling some of your properties that you said were having issues performing, but you had some other ones that were, you know, cashflow machines.

Andres:
Yeah. I with me and my partner decided to sell a few that are, have a lot of equity and their cash flow is not great. Because we, we bought it, I would say at a very good price. But the rate that we have, you know, 7.8, 7.9, it just doesn’t make sense to hold, let’s just say $150,000 in equity and make $700 in cashflow, plus all the issues and all the problems. And one of the things that I, I tell people that you gotta calculate what is your return of an equity to, and it’s, it’s like holding that equity down versus, and, and the velocity of money. What can you do? Even if we decide to, let’s say, put it this way, let’s say that we have made that year $10,000 in cashflow, net, net profit cashflow, right? So even if you sell a and we make 150,000 and we had to pay taxes on it, and we have to pay realtor’s commission and all that, you still need 10 years to re to make that money and all the un all the foresee issues that, that, that property can cause because it’s, we, it’s an older home.

Andres:
You know, Connecticut is, everything is very old. So all the unforeseen. So yes, we put about $120,000 into the property, but the boilers are okay, but they can, you know, so it’s not for me. I’d rather you bring that money and buy a better property. Doesn’t have to be bigger, but it has to be a better condition, better location, or something bigger. That makes more sense.

Charles:
That’s perfect sense. That’s one thing I was gonna ask you because with older properties, you know, it’s, it’s normal. The first property I bought was like 1904. I bought another 1, 1900, 19 0 6, 19 10, whatever. So like, you’re buying a property that’s 120 years old. When you’re going into these properties, let’s say you say it’s a good location, you’re running a property, it’s been owned for 40, 50 years in the same person it needs, you know, six figures of rehab. Are you gonna go in there initially and, you know, take care of all the big things? Or are you going through and like, like really fully renovating it? Obviously it’s all numbers dependent, but like, what is your initial plan going forward so you can like, avoid some of these headaches? Because there’s like, I mean, everything can go wrong on these properties.

Andres:
The mindset that I have is, I have a framework in my head. First, you have to do the things that you should do. So me mechanicals, it’s something that you should do. Now if the mechanicals, if the boiler, for example, it will last three to four years according to the h vaccination, then I wouldn’t replace it. If it’s not necessarily right now. Why? ’cause those three or four years could be one year actually, or could be 10 more years. Like, it’s very unpredictable. But if you have a hole in the roof, if your siding is falling apart, if you don’t have good, you know, gutters, if you’re you, there’s a risk of fire because you’re, you have knob and tube electric, then those are the things that we address. So first there’s things that you should do. Second the things that you could do.

Andres:
And those are the things that, you know, can we put granite or quarts et cetera. And because we wanna bring the value up of the property and the rents. And then the third thing is the thing that we, we can do unnecessary things that if the budget allows, we’ll do is it tracks decking will make it more appealing to a plus? Is it a little bit of a dog park or dog area that we can have things like that. So which I, I will say you must tackle the things that you should do. And this goes with flipping too. People go on the houses and they’re thinking, oh, this has so much potential. And they’re thinking about what kind of cabinets they’re gonna put and what kind of tile, what kind of flooring. But they forget that the, that that they have an open tube, they have mold in the attic, they have the, the roof is, it’s old. And then they, they start renovating all these things. And then when they’re trying to sell, you know, the ARV is not there ’cause the roof is old. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. Or the, or, they cannot sell or they, they the buyer backs out because so many inches in the house of you know, mechanical wise. So yeah, that’s how we approach every, any renovation.

Charles:
No, it makes perfect sense. <Laugh>, if no one knows that’s listening to what knob and tube is, you should Google it. It’s amazing that they put electricity through these things, <laugh> and you’ll see ’em in old places. ’cause They won’t take ’em out. They just will go around ’em and, you know, disconnect them. But they’ll go around ’em. But you can see ’em like on old rafters, in basements in Connecticut. It’s funny that when I moved down to Florida, I would talk to people down here and they would tell me that 1960s was old. And I was like, oh, 1960s is brand new. It’s

Andres:
This is all you, you having a baby, A

Charles:
Baby <laugh>.

Andres:
Absolutely.

Charles:
But yeah, there’s, but there’s, you have to really go through and all your systems after like 40, 50 years, they have to be all, you know, all your plumbing has to be done, all of, you know, obviously you’ve probably already redone your your furniture, your boilers multiple times during that time. Hot water heaters every 10 years, maybe more. So the thing is like, these things are just, they just, they need, they need to. And the problem is that it’s not raising rents. So you have to make sure it’s really in those numbers, but it’s important. You know, it’s really important and especially having these issues, especially during the winter when I mean, it gets really cold outside. You have to make sure all this stuff is working. So, yeah. A lot of great information there.

Andres:
Yeah, no, absolutely.

Charles:
Now, if you have investors that probably are, they’ll probably start and they maybe wanna partner with someone, this is one thing that is always kind of, you know, which way do people go? And what would be your advice for investors looking to partner with another investor, say on a future deal or maybe on their first deal? How do you go into that kind of situation?

Andres:
Do you wanna talk about partnerships or like racing capital? I would say

Charles:
Partnerships as an active investor.

Andres:
Okay. So yeah. So I, I have I had, right now I have one partner that I own one house with, and she’s great. She’s more the,

Andres:
The the money gal. And she’s more the numbers. I’m more the management partner. And then I have a partner where I own half of my portfolio, if not more. And I have had partnerships, you know, with flips and, and creative financing and all that. I think that, that, my first advice is to start small, as small as you can. And when I say small, buy that single family, buy that duplex buy maybe that triplex. Do not try to go into bigger deals more, you know, tough to, to get rid of. If we have to exit it, I will say you gotta have the same mission and vision, and that is so important. Your vision, your mission can be the same. And I had a partnership with my mission was the same, but my vision was different.

Andres:
So my mission was obviously to make, you know, let’s say to make money and have good properties and all that. My vision was to that this is gonna be a long-term hold. And my partner wanted to, he agreed, they agreed at the time, but then a year later they were like, we need money quicker. This is just a drip in that faucet. We need to, you know, be flowing more. And I always advise, you know, start small and try to really gauge what their intentions are and what their vision is. Like. They have to be aligned. And if it doesn’t feel right, if in your inside, like in your gut it doesn’t feel right, then just don’t do it.

Charles:
It’s a lot of good information. The first person I bought a house from, he was telling me that with his first partner, and there’s a large age gap. They had that issue and then he had to find another partner and something like, oh yeah, the guy has money. It’s perfect. Well, the guy has money, but he wants to retire. He’s not looking for like, to work with this 25-year-old. That’s like trying to roll everything for the next 25 years of their life.

Andres:
Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and also like partnerships can, can be treated as also like seasons. So for example, right now, Charles, your friends from high school or college or whatever might not be your friends now because you guys are a different point of your life. So when you’re partnering with someone, that could be a season, could be a flip. And we are in and out and if we don’t like it, you know, we’re gonna be in and out and within six months we can get along within six months. If the worst that could happen, I mean, treat it like a, like a, okay, maybe I can do something quick with you. I have friends that have, let’s say, a lot of money that I could flip a house. They’ve told me, Hey, I have this amount of money and we can flip a house, and they don’t wanna be hands-on. So it’s perfect. Do, would I invest in a long-term rental? Absolutely not. Because I understand that this takes time. They, they don’t.

Charles:
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I like the idea too, of suggesting people to buy smaller properties first. And the benefit with those two, like you mentioned, you, you went over quickly, but the liquidity on it, it’s something where you can easily refinance these small properties under, you know, four units or less. And you’re also able to easily sell them if they’re in good condition. They’re easily sold through FHA and there’s lots of buyers since house hacking is now a cool thing. It’s something that you can easily sell these properties to people much more easier than selling a five unit where now we’re going to commercial financing, we’ve got all this stuff and it’s a much more professional, let’s say well capitalized investor, buyer that you need to have. So as we’re kinda wrapping up here one of the things I wanna say is, what or common mistakes you see real estate investors make today?

Andres:
Do you wanna tell about rentals or flipping?

Charles:
I just say whatever you want, whatever you wanna say. I mean, whatever you’ve seen for just mistakes that real estate investors are making in, in whatever, whatever it’s quick flips or long-term rentals.

Andres:
So the biggest mistakes that I’ve seen still today and hurts my heart on rental properties is not underwriting their deal. Well, and when I say is majority of new investors, they, this is, this is what they do. They say, okay, I’m gonna make this amount of rent. This is gonna be my mortgage insurance, you know, taxes and and interest, whatever. And then I’m gonna have to set aside a little bit for maintenance. And a little bit for I see the other day a little bit for like the water and in management. And then, you know, they’re not accounting any landscaping. There’s no removal, any capital expenditures that are gonna be spending in a near future. They’re not accounting water, water, which is like the most basic. They’re not accounting things that are so obvious that are gonna happen. Like it’s a hundred percent sure that it will happen at some point in, in the house that, you know, you have to repair.

Andres:
And when they’re talking about social media, yes, I’m making $1,500 in cashflow, I’m like, that looks more like $450. The thing is like, you don’t, you don’t see it. And I kind of wanna say something to them. If they’re close to me, I will say something because I wanna help them. But I have come across where like, I don’t wanna, I, I wanna help ’em, but I don’t wanna sound arrogant or envi, like I’m envious of them. So if they’re truly my friends, I will help them. Whether they want to talk to me later on, that’s fine, but I, but I know that that’s sort of like my call and they can take my advice or not. When I talk about flipping, I will say taking renovations takes more money and more time that you think. And also a RV is not as high as you think. You gotta be conservative. The more conservative in those numbers, the the better. And one little miscalculation on the a RV and seasonality can, can make you lose money. And I’ve seen that. I’ve lived that. So yeah,

Charles:
A lot of great advice there. How can our listeners learn more about you and your business?

Andres:
Yeah, so I’m on Instagram and Facebook. My Instagram is my name Andres Bernal, but instead of an L at the end is a want. I’m also on Facebook you know, like my name, address, Bernal. And I, I got a few things that I cannot wait to release. I also wrote a book it’s on Amazon. It has done really well, way better than I thought it was gonna do. It’s called Born to Retire Young. It’s basically the simple tactical framework to retire in less than 10 years through real estate. And I’m writing my flipping second book very again, tactical, no bs, no fluff, just what exactly you need to do to make money in this business.

Charles:
Okay. We’ll put those links to the show notes. Thank you very much for your time and looking forward to connecting with you here in the near future.

Andres:
Yeah, thank you, man. Appreciate it.

Links and Contact Information Mentioned In The Episode:

About Andres Bernal

Andres Bernal is a Dominican-born real estate investor, entrepreneur, and Founder of Sky Circle LLC, as well as a former professional tennis player who built an eight-figure real estate portfolio from the ground up. After immigrating to the United States with just $500, Andres purchased his first property in 2016 and quickly transformed that single deal into a powerful wealth-building engine. 

Today, Andres has completed 50+ property flips between 2024–2025, owns 60 rental units across Section 8 housing, student rentals, and traditional tenants, and has grown his net worth to over $5 million with $12M+ Real Estate Portfolio. Through Sky Circle LLC, he is known for his no-fluff, street-smart investing style, focusing on deal speed, efficient scaling, and transforming distressed properties into consistent cash-flowing assets.

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