Welcome back to The Jose Luiz Morales Show, a program dedicated to providing value to you in your business career and help you with your personal development. Today I’m joined by real estate agent Aaron Novello to answer the question, “What does it take to grow a successful business?”

Aaron has sold more than100 homes in each of the last five years. In addition to being a top residential agent, he’s also a professional speaker and co-author of the book "Taming Your Sales Gremlin", which he will discuss in detail in addition to our topic of the day. 

Tune into the video above to learn everything you need to know about growing a successful business. 

If you have any questions for Aaron, you can call him at (954) 653-4406 or visit his website and contact him there. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help!

I’m starting a new Jose Luiz Morales Show to educate you on all things real estate. Each month, I will have a guest from the mortgage world, title companies, and more to answer any questions that you may have. 

Today, my guest is Karly Rosalez from Prospect Mortgage. Karly and I will discuss how to buy a secondary property. We’ll go over: 

• How to know if you qualify to buy a secondary property. 
• Can you own two houses at once? 
• Buying a secondary property with an FHA loan vs. a conventional loan. 
• Buying a vacation home vs. an investment property. 
• Using rent from your departing residence to pay for your second home. 

Watch the video above to learn everything you need to know about purchasing a secondary property. 

If you have any questions for Karly, you can call or text her at 805-302-8224. As always, if you have any other questions, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Earlier today, I was with one of my newest agents, Rick, and we were setting up signs for an open house he was having.

This brought me back to my first ever open house around six years ago. I remember that I had no guidance at the time, and didn’t know how or where to put up the signs. 

I really spaced my signs out, and only one or two people stopped by. I was confused why my strategy of placing signs near a busy intersection didn’t work. It turns out that the signs were so far away from the property, nobody was able to find it. 

Everything started coming back full circle as I was helping Rick get ready. My mentor eventually showed me how to set up open house signs successfully, and that’s what I was able to do for Rick. I’m glad to be able to give back, even in a way as simple as that.

That’s just a quick thought I had for today. Everything comes full circle in real estate, so pay it forward when you can. If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

When you change the way that you look at things, the things that you look at begin to change.

I was having a conversation with a family member recently, and they were telling me about how certain things weren’t going as planned for them. This happens to all of us. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned, and there’s nothing we can do about it. The only thing that we can do about it is control what meaning we can give to these events. Are these positive things, or are we looking at these things in a negative manner?

I’ll give you an example, and this is really personal. Back in 2009, I was young and in college, and I got a DUI. It ended up changing my life forever. After that event, I had a couple of choices to make. What meaning did I give to that event? Was it something bad or something good? In my case, it was something good. This event caused me to move back in with my parents because of the cost of the DUI. I stopped drinking for a year. I had to attend AA classes. Within eight months of the DUI, however, I became a homeowner. Within 10 months, I had my real estate license.  

My life has never been the same since. It was something obviously negative that happened, and I could have thought about it as something really bad, but I accepted the responsibility for my actions and I gave it a positive meaning. I turned something negative into something positive.

I remember doing a toastmaster speech a couple of years back where I spoke about the concept of what meaning you’re giving certain life events. One of the examples I gave was to imagine that your boyfriend broke up with you. Is that the end of the world for you, or, on the positive side, is it an opportunity for you to upgrade? Maybe a better significant other is out there waiting for you. I remember when my ex-girlfriend and I broke up it was tough, but at the same time I look at my fiance now and say to myself, “Oh my God, I’m so glad that this happened. This wonderful opportunity was waiting for me.”

At the time, you may not be able to see what the real purpose is, but you need to believe that there is something better out there that is waiting for you. The only things you can control are your attitude, the meaning that you give to that certain event, and your perception of things. When something bad happens to you, or something unexpected that you can’t control, think of it this way: What meaning am I giving to this event? Have I accepted this event already and am I moving forward? Is there a bright side to this situation? What if there is something better out there? 

There’s a rainbow after every storm. 

If you or anybody you know is thinking about buying or selling real estate, have them give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to helping you in any way I can.

If you’re heartsick over the results of the election, focus your attention on the things you can control in life instead of the things you can’t.

I’ve seen a lot of posts lately about Donald Trump being elected as our next President. Needless to say, I’ve seen a lot of negative things. 

Here’s the thing: we all know what he said, but none of us know what’s going to happen in the future. That’s out of our control, and there’s nothing we can do about it. 

In my mind, what I’m thinking about now aren’t the things that I can’t control, but the things that I can. I can’t control the way that other people act; I can only control the way that I act and the way that I talk to people. Am I going to be racist? No. No matter what, that’s not in my heart. What I’m going to do is treat everybody with love and respect. 

Is the economy going to go bad? I have no idea. No matter what I claim on Facebook, I have no control over the economy. I do have 100% control over what I’m doing to improve myself, though. The things I have 100% control over include:  

• The time that I wake up.
• Whether or not I work out in the morning.
• Whether or not I listen to the media.
• Who I’m associating myself with.
• The books that I read.
• What I do every day to improve my business.
• What I’m doing to educate myself. 

 There are a lot of things in life that we can’t control, and no matter what we say, we can’t do anything about it. We have measures of influence over events, but at the end of the day, all we can do is focus on what we can do to improve ourselves and how we treat other people. 

Just because there is talk of racism isn’t going to change my values or beliefs. People that are racist are always racist. People that are angry are always going to be angry. People that are sad are going to be sad. That’s the way that these people have trained their emotions to react. 

Over the next four years, here’s what I’m committed to doing while Donald Trump is president: 

• Improving myself.
• Waking up early every single morning.
• Reading books that improve my mindset.
• Growing my business, good economy or not.
• Treating people with love and respect.

 I can’t control anything else beyond that. I invite you now to ask yourself, what is in your control? Are you going to focus on things you have 100% control over or things you don’t have 100% control over? Whatever it is you focus on, the choice is yours. 

If you have any questions about what I’ve talked about today or you need help in the real estate game, feel free to reach out to me by phone or email. As always, make it a great day!

Napoleon Hill used to say that if you ever want to get promoted in any sort of job, then you need to offer more value than what you’re currently being paid for. I really took this lesson to heart and wanted to delve into it today. 

For example, let's say you are a cook and you want to make more money. Instead of demanding a raise from your boss, take some responsibilities off your boss’s plate. Find other duties to offer more value — that is how you get a promotion or a raise. 

Don’t focus on doing the bare minimum or just getting by — think about what you can do to add more value. If you take on more responsibilities, the world will reward you. 

Obviously, part of this has to do with the environment you work in. Ideally, your company would be a growth company. However, if you’re constantly looking to add more value, another company will promote you even if the one you’re currently at won’t. 

When I was in my dad’s store, I did this unconsciously. I started taking on additional responsibilities like negotiating with the vendors. I also brought in a system to keep track of customers and how often they were coming in. By doing so, I became more valuable in the eyes of my boss. 

I firmly believe that if anybody wants to grow in a company or grow their business, all you have to do is go above and beyond. Do whatever it takes. Add on responsibilities, don’t complain, and make it happen. 

The moral of the story is don’t ask for a pay increase. Don’t wait for it to come to you — offer more value than what you’re currently being paid for, and you will be rewarded for it. Farmers don’t just plant a seed and expect corn to grow; they water the plant and make sure it grows so they can reap the harvest. You have to do the same. 

If you have any questions, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

When people ask me if I ever consider going back to school to get my master’s degree or Ph.D., I always tell them no. Why? Because I’m already advancing my education through Audible.

When I get fired up and thinking about something, I just have to share it with the people who are important to me. One of the things I get asked about often is whether or not I ever think about going back to school to get my master’s degree or Ph.D. 

My answer is no. 

The reason for that is I believe that we can get an education in anything that we want. All we have to do is listen. I use certain listening channels to get my education every single day. One of those channels is Audible. Audible is a company that allows you to buy books and listen to them. Instead of needing to sit down and read, you can turn your car into an educational arena on your way to work. Any time I’m on my way to an appointment, I’m listening to whatever it is that I want to master. 

In fact, I just got back from an appointment where my in-between travel time was inundated with wisdom from Grant Cardone. Grant is a real estate investor who specializes in helping people become wealthy. Whether it’s Grant Cardone, Dave Ramsey, or Mike Ferry, there are many people out there who have a message that’s worth your time, and all it takes to receive it is the click of a button. 

Whether it’s real estate investing, developing good habits, how to eat healthier, or any subject I feel that I need to work on, I go to Audible and find the book that’s going to help me. It lets you consolidate your time so that tasks like taking a shower, going to the gym, or driving to an appointment all count toward increasing your knowledge. 

If you have the opportunity to learn from the most successful people in the world, why not take it? If you have any questions, please give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to talk.

I recently got out of a meeting with one of my clients where we were discussing one of my favorite topics when I was in school: economics and the concept of “opportunity cost.” My client was debating whether to sell his property or hold onto it as a rental. If he decided to sell, he would be netting roughly $75,000 after fees. If he decided to rent, the net would be $200 a month.

My first question for him was what would be the opportunity cost of renting the property if he decided to keep it as a rental? If he did so, he would be netting $200 a month of positive cash flow. The second was if he took that $75,000, could he do something else with that money? For example, buy another property and earn a higher return?

That’s the concept of opportunity cost. Not only does it apply to money, but it also applies to time. When it comes to time, I usually ask myself, “What is the opportunity cost of me taking on a certain activity?” Let’s say I had to wash my car and had the choice of either paying someone $20 an hour or doing it myself. The only way that it would make sense for me to wash it myself is if I made less than $20 an hour. If I made more than $20 an hour, I could pay that someone and then be able to invest more time and energy into more important things like my career and my job. 

Before you take on a certain activity, you have to ask yourself if it makes sense for you to invest your time in that activity. You can either do the activity yourself or delegate it to someone else and leave yourself free to focus on higher-dollar priorities. It doesn’t make sense to invest your time into things that would cost you money. 

I know what some of you are thinking right about now. Why wouldn’t you wash your own car? Why not change your own oil? Why not input a listing on the MLS? The reason is that I make more than $15 an hour - the amount I should be paying for someone to take care of all of those tasks. 

If you’re in a situation like that, ask yourself two things: how much you’re worth on an hourly basis, and how much you can pay for the task to be taken care of. Once you put that situation into that perspective, analyze the choice in terms of your capital. If you’re like my client and have $75,000 tied up in a property, or in a 401(k) account, or an IRA account, could you take that $75,000 and earn a higher return than what you’re currently earning? If that’s the case, then move your capital to the highest return. That’s opportunity cost. 

If you or anybody you know is looking to buy or sell real estate, give me a call or send them my way. I’d be happy to help. 

Bill McCartney was stuck with a property he just couldn’t sell. He had listed it three different times in the past without any luck. 

However, that luck changed once he contacted us. We took the property and utilized a new marketing strategy complete with aerial photos. We then proactively worked with the existing tenants and updated Bill on our progress every week. In four months, the property ended up finally selling.

For Bill, it was a considerable load off. The experience left him feeling positive about the business we did together. For us, that was music to our ears. We live to serve our clients. 

Whether you’re buying or selling a house, please reach out to us so we can help you too. Just give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.