Mike Cantu and Tony Alvarez Join Bruce Norris on the Real Estate Radio Show #379

Norris Bruce

Bruce Norris is an active investor, hard money lender, and real estate educator with over 30 years experience. Bruce has been involved in over 2,000 real estate transactions as a buyer, seller, builder and money partner.

Norris Bruce
April 25, 2014

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Bruce Norris is joined this week by real estate entrepreneur, property manager, wholesaler, builder, teacher and mentor Mike Cantu. He has purchased a huge number of homes at a discount from people he talks to over the phone and rarely meets. Also on today’s show is Tony Alvarez, who is a real estate entrepreneur, property manager, teacher, and mentor who mostly buys properties by creating relationships with agents who control lots of inventory.

Bruce has known Mike the longest for over twenty years. His motivation to get into real estate was he could not stand being told what to do and grew up with military discipline with 9 people in an 1100 square foot house. His dad was career military and ruled it with a heavy hand. Mike was constantly being told what to do, and to this day he cannot stand this. He has enough to do on his own and usually fills up his day with his own agenda. If someone tries to wedge something else in, most of the time he is not interested. He learned to live life on his terms and work when he was ready to work. Bruce asked him if he came from any real estate background, to which he said he did not. He heard that, starting at 14 years old when he was trying everything to earn money, he was in a trade and needed to save his money.

Neither of his parents were self-employed. His father was career military and his step-mother was a legal secretary. Bruce asked him if he felt he was raised in a wealthy family, to which he said he did not. They did not even have a washer or dryer hooked up or air conditioning. Their house was just bare bones construction with a pitched roof and no attic. Bruce asked if becoming wealthy was important to Mike, to which he said it was not so much the wealthy as it was the freedom he was after to do like on his terms. This was the big reason why he got involved in real estate. He did not want to be told what to do and wanted to be comfortable.

Bruce and Tony met about 10 years ago at an Apartment Owners Association meeting. Tony bluntly said his motivation for getting into real estate was money. He was broke, unemployed, and he did not have any prospects having dropped out of high school. Someone went on the radio and said any idiot could make it in real estate, and this was how Tony got started. He saw it as an opportunity he would not otherwise have. He did not come from a real estate background. He came to the country from Cuba when he was five years old. His dad was a clerk in court in Cuba, and his mom was a teacher. They both became janitorial experts when they came to the country. However, his whole motivation was they had nothing except the basic needs; so he was reminded of this quite often in different situations as a kid.

Similar to Mike, Tony had been told what box to go to which was to learn a trade since it means safety and stability. If you do this, then at the end of your life you will have cared for the basics. A lot of the advice we are given is certainly coming from a really good heart. Both Mike and Tony have this in common since they were both told to go and learn the trade, but in different ways. Tony said the first time he ever heard about a trade was when he was in 8th grade and was trying to pick a good high school that would get him ready for college. Sister Marie, one of his favorite nuns, called his mom in and told her to help Anthony find a trade school that would put him in high school since he was not really college material. She was not doing this to be mean; but coming from a teacher’s point of view at that point in time, she was trying to be very helpful and do something she thought would help him in his life. Unbeknownst to her, he didn’t like to get his hands dirty so the trade school didn’t really work. The only ones that really worked were drafting classes that taught him how to draw his own home.
Bruce asked Mike and Tony about their experiences growing up and experienced what a lot of people will. For example, Mike’s dad always asked him if he felt like he was more influenced on the example he saw every day on what somebody did or what they told him. He said he had an endless respect for his dad and always will, but as a kid he wanted a different life as an adult and had bigger plans. Bruce asked him how this originated, and he said it started with friends at school who lived on the proverbial other side of the tracks. He thought he had it going on from 1st through 4th grade, but sometime in 5th grade he went to the upscale neighborhood and discovered several things. One was central air conditioning in the middle of summer time. When he got upgraded to some of the luxuries of life, he realized what he was missing.

This occurred in his early teens, which is unusual since most people are not thinking about their future when they are only a teenager. Mike was making future plans as early as ten years old to have better circumstances than what he was currently living. Mike was the lone ranger here since none of his friends planned this far in advance. He had gold cards since his late teens and used to have a front seat of a volkswagon bug in the corner of his bedroom where he would always go to read his cards. He would read quietly so the neighbors would not hear him, but at the same time he liked to read out loud to engage more of his senses, both audio and visual. He would mumble through the gold cards, and he found the experience of the gold setting and constant auto suggest. Suddenly things were coming full circle and becoming part of his life to where he figured it out early. This kind of thing never really dawned on Bruce until he was about 28 when he met Jim Rhoan.

Bruce asked Tony the same question regarding the observation of how things are going and what you are supposed to do. He answered that as an immigrant, when he came to the country he had to learn to speak the same language. This was really from where it stemmed. When you are young, kids do all kinds of weird things and look differently on foreigners. Tony was reminded immediately of this. He did not realize he was poor until he realized he had on black tie shoes and everybody else had on penny loafers. Tony grew up in a neighborhood where the same people who identified him as the enemy was the ones of which Tony wanted to be a part. They helped him to forge and become aware of his identity. The probably had a lot to do with making him aware of the fact that he did not quit. All of these situations in life have a way of reminding you who you really are at your core and bringing you in touch with that.

When Mike Cantu was saying what motivated him, Tony said he could identify with some of these things, although not necessarily the same way. Tony was not sitting around with cards writing goals, but rather his goal was to survive. Period. It is a different life, but you are really getting to the same thing. It is what is inside of an individual that makes them overcome whatever comes at them. When we go backwards and find a box that we thought was unacceptable, we have to go back further and see if our folks created a box that was bigger than what they had been raised with. Tony said he and his family were in a perpetual box that he was put in by his parents’ opinion. His mom was completely the opposite and said you can do anything you want to do in this life. His mom told him every single day on the way to school that he could become anyone he wanted to become and do what he wanted to do as long as you learn to love people first.

Tony said they never understood that statement. They thought love was what you saw in the movies when people kiss. He thought mom was a little whacky, but over time this made more sense. However, the box was everyone. The nuns at the school had the box in which they were trying to put him. Society said you had to go to college and so many other things, then you will be okay with herself. All of these things have a way of bringing out since the only thing he originally remembered was having a certain feeling inside himself where in spite of everything, there was something else inside him that was a part from that. This is where you really start to identify yourself and discover who you are.

Mike had his own comments on the box since long ago he had heard the term “think outside the box.” When he heard this term, he realized this world was kind of a box. Most people get up, drive to work, then go into their work that is its own box. Their whole existence is one box after another. Mike likes the concept of a box cutter where you get out, cut the four corners, flatten it out, and expand your horizons. Mike wanted to change a lot of the things his dad did, but he also had a lot of respect for his dad. These two can go together. He wants a new box for himself, but he is also standing on a box of which he is proud.

Bruce asked Mike what was inside the box that he could adopt and make bigger. Mike said his dad’s philosophy on life was he has always been a happy person and claims to have never been bored one minute of his life. He is always busy and has the worst case of arrested development he has ever seen. He is a constant inspiration and is extremely thrifty and frugal. He watched him be debt-free most of his life and retire very comfortably. He still adheres to a lot of the life lessons and disciplines he passed on to him. He thanks him for this every day; but as far as the learning to trade went it was something of which he was exposed. He figured this was the best route for his kids to take. He was military all of his life; and the other option he told him early on was he would not make it until 10:00 the first day of bootcamp and to scratch this. This was back to the discipline and being told what to do. They eliminated the military, and all that was left was a trade.

Tony said to a certain extent, if his dad never told him to do something like Tony’s dad told him to go to the factory. The minute his dad said he needed to get a job at the factory, he knew inside this was not him. He did try the job at the factory and lasted nine months, but he knew he couldn’t do this all his life. All of the suggestions and comments coming at you and people trying to put you in a box are also a way of freeing yourself from it since they make you do it. If something inside you does not resonate with what they are saying, then you know it is not what you want to do. It doesn’t mean they do like what they do, for example, his dad being proud to work at Mauldin Mills. He made an American flag out of the materials he worked with that went up in their house since they were proud of their country.

This was a new opportunity. Parents work hard so their kids can go to college or be able to own certain things. However, they also give you your fears. In the movie Rudy, the moment of decision for him was when his dad sat down with him and told him he could not go to Notre Dame since it was for rich and smart kids. He also was told to work at the factory. It was not done in a mean-spirited way, but rather with his father’s arms around him and telling him he was protecting him from disappointment. What was impressive was how all his younger brothers graduated from college, and he had opened a box they did not know existed.

Mike said there was a turning point in his late teenage years, around 17, when he had been on his own for two years. During this time he was exposed to more things he had never seen or witnessed before, and he kept adding to the list of things he wanted to be part of his life. The big question that came about was what he wanted his life to look like. He asked himself this and went to his first real estate seminar where he learned 101 ways to buy real estate with no money down. On the way home he discussed with his roommate about the mortgages discussed, and he was unsure.

Mike pulled his folks together and said they had the plan to refinance their free and clear house, and they would turn the proceeds over to him so he could head down the road to real estate riches. As he came and gave his presentation to them, this was another turning point in his life because he and his dad had a very similar sense of humor. When he gave the pitch, he laughed so hard he rolled out of his chair onto the living room floor. Before this there were only three times Mike remembered his dad laughing at him. After he pulled it together, they made eye contact and round two started. This was frustrating for Mike and he had to go through the whole thing again before walking out the door.

Bruce said until something like this happens, the steel of will seems absent. There has to be some big reason where you say something is unacceptable. For Bruce, at every turning point he had been angry at something, whether himself or what was just done. It was when he said it would never happen again that it became a turning point. For Mike, he vowed never to give his dad a reason to laugh at him like that. That night he lit a fire inside Mike that still burns in him to this day. It is interesting that sometimes the people who love us do the opposite of what we want, yet they can change your entire life. Bruce and Mike spoke one time and brought up the idea of what if you did not have anything. When they discussed this, Bruce could feel the hair on his neck standing up and had to put on his game face.

Bruce asked them what stood out in their minds about the last Millionaire Maker event they had. Tony said what stood out was what happened afterwards. There were people who attended this event who he met that went on to become millionaires. This was the whole thrust even of the original Millionaire Maker. People went to it saying they wanted to learn something that is real that they could apply immediately and could really do something. The Millionaire Maker is really about bringing the best person out of yourself. The people who attended who were already in real estate who did not know the difference between a deed of trust and their birth certificate.

The ones who went on to do something are the same ones who stayed in touch with Tony and many others. There were people who took it seriously and said they could use it and do something with the information. The event was fantastic, but this was what really stood out for him. They watched the movie Rudy at the event, and he came to find out he spent a good portion of his time speaking to him and didn’t realize who he was. The aftermath and watching the changes in people’s lives that were real was what stood out, and some of these people became business associates. You cannot say anything more than this since the value in what you do is what happens after the fact. Is the information worthwhile, useful, and will change lives. It is combination of what they learned and what they chose to do.

Mike said what stood out to him was the diversity of the speakers. This was the first thing he noticed as everybody told their story. Bruce could not have done a better job of picking four different people, and he realized there under the great umbrella of real estate that anybody can carve out whatever it is they are after depending on their ability, efforts, and determination. If you come up with a plan, implement it, and take action, you can do it. Up to this point he thought everybody does it the same, which is not true. They all do it way different. Bruce said the fun thing about orchestrating these days was seeing this. When Mike was done talking, he had covered so much that Tony had nothing about which to talk. He had forgotten what he had done himself, which was very different from what Mike had done. He was so enthralled by everything he was saying that he reinvented himself just during his presentation. The Bruce said the goal was for everyone in the audience to relate to at least one of the speakers. This had to go on when you say you will bring the skills you have and bring them to the table.

This July Bruce will be presenting his newest Millionaire Maker talk. Here they will have an exciting group of people. Come check it out and tune in next week as Bruce continues his discussion with Mike Cantu and Tony Alvarez.