Podcast Interview—Road to Growth
Alejandro Szita - California & Florida Mortgage & Real Estate Broker
Episode Summary:
In this episode of the Road to Growth podcast, we are pleased to introduce you to Alejandro Alejandro Szita is a California & Florida mortgage broker. A real estate and mortgage professional since 2005, he has seen the world of real estate fi nance from all angles—commercial, residential and capital raising. He has a background not only in real estate and fi nance, but also in infomercials and creating a million- dollar retail enterprise through the Home Shopping Network. Alejandro is the co-owner of a boutique mortgage brokerage that specializes in servicing self-employed borrowers such as artists and small business owners. A lifelong student of economics, he provides his clients with practical advice about money and fi nance on a routine basis. In his upcoming book “Money—What It Is, How It Works, And How You Can Use It to Create Wealth and Prosperity for Yourself and Your Community,” Alejandro teaches the fundamentals of wealth building and answers questions such as “what is money” and “what is value.”
Podcast Transcription:
Intro: ROAD TO GROWTH : Success as an Entrepreneur. We've raised the bar. Learn firsthand from successful business owners and create your own path to success. I'm going to show you how great I am. It's time to hit the road to growth. With team lead of the Enriquez Group, Realtor Vinnie.
Vinnie Enriquez: Hi, listeners. Today, I got Alejandro Szita here. He is a Californian and Florida mortgage real estate broker, doing both sides of the US right there. Thank you, Alejandro, for being here today.
Alejandro Szita: Vinnie, thank you very much for inviting me to your show. It's a pleasure to be here.
Vinnie Enriquez: And now as we take the full spectrum of California and the full spectrum of Florida, it seems like two drastic different communities. If you really have to generalize, and I know there's going to be smaller locations compared to better rental areas in California and better rental areas and more luxury locations in Florida. Yet, I mean, I would say there's a pretty good rental market in Florida relative to California as a whole. So that has to be kind of an interesting perspective that you kind of bring to the table. Working in both sides of the US.
Alejandro Szita: Yes. The reason I like Florida and the reason I got licensed in Florida is because I have been there many, many times before becoming a real estate broker, before being in the mortgage industry. So I had a natural affinity to Florida. I've driven it up and down, you know, east to west, all the way from Jacksonville to Dade County, which is in the bottom, you know, all the way from Tampa to Cocoa Village, which is on the East Coast. So the reason why, I mean, we are in Florida is more of a personal preference rather than a business decision.
Vinnie Enriquez: You just liked it so much out there.
Alejandro Szita: Yeah, I do. Even though at the beginning, you know, I was not comfortable with the weather. You know, I'm coming from Chile, so we don't have that type of weather. I like it. I have relationships, I had investors, so I, I just liked it.
Vinnie Enriquez: Well, I mean, let's, let's jump back. I mean, if someone asks you, Alejandro, what do you do? How do you describe yourself?
Alejandro Szita: It's difficult because in theory, I'm a mortgage broker. In practice, I'm a mortgage broker, but I come from a financial planning background. So when somebody comes with a mortgage request, we don't just do the mortgage bit. We basically examine the whole scenario. We try to see where the mortgage fits in, in the strategy of the person. So that's the way we try to bring value. It's not just the rate, it's not just the loan program, but how can we massage the rate? Because most people don't realize this, you know, most mortgage brokers, get the information and give you back a rate, give you back a program. We don't do that at all. We get the information, we ask a lot of questions, and then we give you a range. Most people qualify for like 50 rates, of which maybe four or three make any sense. We give all the choices. These are the rates you qualify for, these are the problems you qualify for, and we brainstorm with the borrower, unlike other, you know, mortgage brokers. So it's more of a dynamic situation. And whatever we do has to accomplish a goal. And the goal is not necessarily at the lower rate or, or that, you know, the goal is very, very personal to each person.
Vinnie Enriquez: So how do you, how do you put that into an elevator pitch? What's your elevator pitch if you're in the elevator with someone? I mean, is there a way that you put it all in one kind of meal and provide that in that, that short window of time?
Alejandro Szita: I'll try. I've been trying to do this for 20 years. Never been very successful at it, but if I had to put it in an elevator pitch, I would say we are, I'm a financial planner that focuses on mortgages and tries to feed in the mortgage if you need one into your financial picture.
Vinnie Enriquez: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a, I think a good way of putting it. I mean, there's so many options that people don't know what they don't know. And so providing them feedback, thoughts and makes it more palatable to know actually what's going on.
Alejandro Szita: Yeah. And then, and then another thing is that I suffer this personally. You know, I never used abbreviations, never used technical terms. Everything is like spelled out in simple terms.
Vinnie Enriquez: Yeah. I mean, I, I talked about that the first time that I ever bought a house. I basically felt like a, a night of drinking. And I woke up with a house, I didn't know what was going on. You have a house. I was like, whoa. Okay. What just happened? Okay, well, let's rewind. Alejandro, you, you talked about basically moving to the US. I know you were previously in the, in the UK and originally came from Chile. I mean, who was a young Alejandro? Was he into, was he into numbers? Was he into real estate? Who was young Alejandro?
Alejandro Szita: The young Alejandro was an entrepreneur looking for his place, looking for his niche. I tried many, many things. You know, in England, I sold, I was, I was an actual pitchman in one of those English markets. Here in the US they called them swap meets. So I was a pitchman because I decided I needed to learn how to sell. And living in England, the number one example of salesmanship is on a market, on an English, British, or Scottish market. When you walk into a pitchman, it's a real art. And that took me, that made an impression on me. I thought, wow, if one day I could be a 10th of what these guys can do, these guys are artists. So I, my first objective was, I need to learn how to become a pitchman, even if I'm, I can be like them, you know? And that was hard because coming from Chile, you know, in Britain you have also the English accent, which is very hard for somebody coming from South America like me. So that was the young Alejandro. Young Alejandro was a guy, sort of an entrepreneur looking for his niche.
Vinnie Enriquez: Okay. Well, first off, I guess a pitchman, I mean, I know you said a swap meet, is that like an auctioneer where he's basically trying to sell it? Or does he have products and people are walking by and he's trying to sell the products to the people that are walking by?
Alejandro Szita: Well, you mentioned a very interesting thing. If you go to a British market, those two are completely different. One is the pitchman, where people walk by and you try to build a crowd and sell them a bunch of products. And the other one is the auctioneer. The auctioneer in the British sense, it's an art even way beyond the simple pitchman. Those guys are like masters. But no, I was not at the level of the auctioneer.
Vinnie Enriquez: Okay, okay. I get what you're saying. So, so the pitchman kind of walking through a product and selling their product.
Alejandro Szita: It's like, I don't know if you remember or if you ever heard of the, of Ron Popeil, who was a pitchman on TV in the fifties, the sixties, and the seventies, even as late as the 2000, that's more the vibe of what we were doing.
Vinnie Enriquez: Okay, and then you talked about growing up in Chile and then moving to the UK. What made you want to move from Chile to the UK in the first place?
Alejandro Szita: Well when I was in Chile, I always knew I was going to end up overseas. Even when I was really young, I didn't know where or why, but I knew that that was going to happen. And, and the opportunity came when in the UK presented the opportunity to go and actually study. You know? I thought it was a good opportunity and I took it. So when I came into the UK, I was studying.
Vinnie Enriquez: Why did you want to leave Chile so bad?
Alejandro Szita: It's not that I wanted to leave Chile so bad. You know, I was happy in Chile. I, I was well established in Chile. I came from a family that was well off over there. It's because I wanted to explore the world. I wanted to go to other places. Nothing wrong with Chile, it's just that I wanted to go someplace else.
Vinnie Enriquez: Now, you go to the UK, you want to become a pitchman. What happens next? I mean, where does that transition from living in the UK, growing in the UK to wanting to move to the US happen?
Alejandro Szita: Well, I had a partner, I had a business partner at the time. He was the ultimate, and he still is the ultimate pitchman. So what ended up happening is that I ended up doing all of the logisticals, of the finances, product, and more and more of the pitching was done by him. I did some pitching occasionally, and the business started to grow. So as a natural progression of that, we decided to come into the US in order to do the pitching. But on the television, we decided to create an infomercial company, which we did. We came here and we created an infomercial company. And what we were doing on the swap meet, we basically started to do it on the television. But I was always on the financial side. I was always on the creative side, you know, writing the scripts, doing the camera work and the editing. It was a lot of fun at the time.
Vinnie Enriquez: And then kind of what happens next? You're doing the pitch, you're having fun with it, kind of what happens next?
Alejandro Szita: Well, that lasted for a few years. Then the business, you know, went down. And then what happened is that about a year, 2000, or I would say 2001, 2002, one of my infomercial clients said, Alejandro, would you like to come to a financial seminar? And I said, sure. Sure enough, I went to the financial seminar and that set me on the path that I'm today. That set me on the path of investing. And then later on, on real estate and then later on, on loans.
Vinnie Enriquez: So you originally started as like an investor investing in properties, in stock, or what kind of investments?
Alejandro Szita: No, no. This was a very interesting investment, which was done in the US for generations, for hundreds of years. And only in the seventies it got maligned by Wall Street. It got a lot of bad publicity, but it was just propaganda, propaganda from the Wall Street firms. And then people ceased to do it. It was investment in the life insurance policy, in a whole life insurance policy. I, I know your show is not about that, but that's a whole universe that it goes way beyond, you know what's out there. And that's the way that Americans invested their life and their retirements. And this is how big business people, Walt Disney, you know, JC Penney, and so on and so on, created their initial fortunes that allowed them to become who they eventually became. But all of that in the seventies was pretty much propagandized out and people forgot about it. And then when you say investing, the only thing that comes to mind is stocks and bonds. That used to be very rare. And that used to be for only a few people and for a reason.
Vinnie Enriquez: So you, you were a financial advisor then, correct?
Alejandro Szita: Yes. I got an insurance license, a life insurance license, and became within that context, a financial advisor.
Vinnie Enriquez: Okay. And then from there, you're getting out there prospecting, getting clients. When did the idea of getting to real estate kind of start coming tp fruition?
Alejandro Szita: It came into fruition when I met this person. And he said, hey, you know, why don't you get a real estate license and come to work with me? He was a broker. You know, and then you could do loans. And I thought, you know, that seems like a good idea. Now we're talking circa 2005. So I went, got a real estate license. At the time with a real estate license, you could do both. You could do loans and you could do real estate. Today, you can't do that. You have to get an extra endorsement. So at the time, I did that and I started to do loans with him, with this broker. And then the broker one day said, hey, you speak Spanish, right? I say, yes, I do. Go and help that other couple, and you can make double commission. I said, how come? He said, they don't have an agent. They need guidance on the real estate side. You can do that. You can do the loan and you can make double commission. That's how I ended up also on the real estate side.
Vinnie Enriquez: When you talked about the idea of getting into the financial situation from the infomercials, and then kind of same thing getting into the real estate. And it was, you, you make it sound very simple of just, hey, someone told me, hey, you should try this. And you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. Were you, are you, was it really that of like, okay, I'm open to this tomorrow, I'm going to do it? Or is it searching? Were you already ready for something new? I mean, what was that going through?
Alejandro Szita: You know, I have been doing loans since I was seven. Since I was seven. I was typing this long contract on a legal side, you know, and lending to my friends, lending to my brother, who he never paid by the way. And so I had, and I've always been interested on the financial side. I remember one day watching like a certain commercial on tv. They were talking about the interest rate. I was like 9 or 10. And I saw that my dad was very worried after he saw that and I said, dad, why are you worried? He says, oh, because the rates are rising. And I said, but you don't owe anything. Why should you worry about a rate going up? And he says, no, no, you don't understand. You're too young. And it's true. I didn't, but that, that, I always remember that he didn't owe anything. He was a financially sound guy, yet he was worried about something he didn't have. So, and then also when I was 14, I went to talk to one of his bank managers. You know, my dad was wealthy, and the bank manager said, oh, no problem. You know, come here anytime you want. And I took him up on his word. One day I called him up and I said, hey, are you free? I'd like to visit your office. And he says, yes, come over. And I did. I sat down with him and I didn't know anything. So I said, hey, can you explain me where money comes from? He gave me a speech for half an hour. Halfway through the speech. I was horrified, because I realized he didn't know. And I thought, wow, this is the bank manager. He doesn't know where money comes from and he does this all day long. I thought, there must be something here. So I always had this little, you know I don't know how to call it, inclination towards the field of loans. And then when I started to do loans, I really saw that the, the world of loans was completely different to what I had imagined.
Vinnie Enriquez: Now, okay, let me, let me jump into that. So the, the bank manager didn't have I guess this stuff together. He didn't have the information that was really needed. Do you think the reason why you wanted to get into loans was more out of curiosity, or you thought, if he can do it, I must be able to do it?
Alejandro Szita: No, it was more of, it was more of a personal inclination. I remember the first time I wanted to buy a vehicle, I had the money, by the way, to buy cash. And somebody said, no, no, no, you should get a loan because it's better for your credit. I had no idea what credit was. So I said, okay. And then had so much trouble, so much headache, I thought, you know, this cannot be. And then I realized that it is, and then I realized that I was not the exception. So this loan thing stuck with me. And then when I started to do loans and learn how to do them, I realized to my horrifying self that it was the same thing. People that do loans usually don't know what they're doing. Let me rephrase. They can't do a loan. Yes, they can get the person a loan, but truly, honestly, they really don't know how it works. They don't know why they're doing it. They don't know whether that loan benefits the person or not. And what is worse. Most people don't care. That, to me was horrifying because I thought, you know, I mean, you may laugh, but this is what I thought in my, in my immature mind. I thought that loan people were the sophisticated, you know, high-end financial advisors that would really look at all the options and give you the best. And I realized that the loan guys were just like pitchmen at the British market, pitching a certain product. And that's all. That, that was like, that was a blow to me.
Vinnie Enriquez: Well, what is, what is that saying that goes right. You think your parents have their stuff together, but when you grow up, you realize they never had their stuff together. Still trying to figure things out. Right. When you're, when you're looking from the other side of the mirror.
Alejandro Szita: I think that's, that's something common for all of us, you know?
Vinnie Enriquez: So why do you think that the, the barrier of entry for, I mean, lenders, mortgage brokers, realtors is so low?
Alejandro Szita: That's a very good question. That's a very good question. You know, nobody has ever answered me that question, but I'll tell you my opinion, and this is my opinion. What happens is, there is one thing I learned in the US, which I think is why the US is such a great country, or why we became the, the most wealthy country in the world. The US thinks big. In the old days, you would have an account, this is what I did. I had a bank account. My, my account executive knew me. He knew, he could just type on his computer. He would see how much money I make, how much money I deposited. He could see how I spend around, you know, we, we chatted together. I knew him, he knew me. So I came in and said, hey, I need this money. He say what for? And he will me approve it or deny me on the spot because he had all the information already in his head. That system is really good at a local level. But when you have a mass of people, when you have 100, 200, 300 million people and you want to service them fast, that system doesn't work anymore. So a system to service hundreds. And and I noticed this in England, you know, in England, this, I'm talking about the eighties and the nineties. So maybe today it's not the same. But in England, if you call the operator, you got a real life person. No menus and a real life person that knew what you were talking about and help you. So that worked for a smaller country. But when you have a huge country like ours, when you have hundreds of millions of people, you need something fast. You need an automated system. So now today, real estate and loans are an automated, very efficient, very fast system. And that's why the barrier to entry's so low, because today you don't have to be a genius.
You don't have to do a, you don't have to know a lot of math. All you have to know is just be able to speak a little bit or talk a little bit because I know, because you are in real estate, you know that in mortgages we are not really the best, the best communicators really, you know, compared to the real estate people. So as long as you can communicate a little, type one keyboard, and you're not completely dumb, the system allows you to process and do a loan, and now you can service millions and millions of people fast. That's why the barrier to entry is so low.
Vinnie Enriquez: Yeah. And I mean that, this is a, a fair side point for anyone listening. Make sure you do your due diligence on whoever you decide to work with. Because there definitely is a difference between one lender and one realtor. In San Diego County from March of this year, or 2022 to March of 2021, 67% of all people that had access to the MLS didn't do one piece of business in that year. So just to give you a reference point, that's a big number. Two thirds of the people having to sold a piece of business in one year.
Alejandro Szita: And Vinnie, I agree with everything that you said right now, and let me add this. I had, the reason I gravitated to mortgages is because I am not such a good salesman, like, for example, you. Why? Because in mortgages, when people come to me, they know, they don't know. In real estate, there is an accurate technology on how to sell houses. However, because that accurate technology is not that technical in terms of numbers, you get people's personal opinions. But a good realtor doesn't act that way. A real good realtor, I mean, I, I can say this because I'm a realtor, but I don't do listings or buyer representation. Like there is a technology to do loans. I'm saying this for the people that are listening. There is a technology to sell homes. That technology is very precise. So listen to your realtor. Listen to your realtor, especially if he has a few sales under his belt, he knows what he's talking about. The tendency, as a seller, and I know this cause I was a realtor, the tendency as a seller is ignore the realtor. So realtor, what does the realtor do? They lie, they say, yeah, it's true. Your house is worth triple X. Yeah. Because you have a wall in green that is going to whatever. It doesn't work that way. You have to listen to your realtor.
Vinnie Enriquez: Yeah. I mean, I, I think one thing, and you brought it up when you first started about how you look at the process is, is trying to keep it a very, I'm going to give you all the information and help you make an educated decision. I think there's a lot of people that are in the field that if anyone's listening has seen the, the Wizard of Oz, they know the great and powerful Oz, where it's behind the curtain, right? And you go, oh my gosh, this person's a magician. They're doing all these tricks. But you look behind the curtain, it's just a person, but we want to feel important, right? Realtors, lenders, whoever it might be, and go, I'm not, I don't need to provide you all the information, just know this is what's going on. I'm taking care of you. And in those situations, they might not know, like Alejandro's talking about what exactly is going on, and they want to basically just get it done with. So just be aware, ask the questions, and everyone, doesn't matter what field, what you're doing, should be willing to answer the questions for you. So yeah, let me, let me, let's jump more into it. So you're, you're growing into the, the mortgage field, right? How long into the mortgage field did you start looking at, hey, you know what? I really like Florida and I want to get my license in Florida also.
Alejandro Szita: You know, that came a lot later. Just just to emphasize a little bit what you said, it took me two years of doing loans to really start to do them well. So yes, a loan is simple. You get a rate, but really, really doing them every day, it took me two years. Not, I may be dumb, but I'm just saying that it's not something that even though the barrier, the barrier of entry is low. Actually to do it well, you need years. The reason why I decided to become licensed in Florida is because as you know, a lot of people are exiting California. And not just California, New York and those states. And Florida now is getting about 1300 people, I don't know, it's per day or per week. Florida is booming. Florida is doing the opposite of what California is doing in, in as many levels as you can imagine. I don't want to get a lot into politics because it's not about that. But Florida is a screaming success and I know a lot of people that are going over there, and I know that the future is there. So that's why I decided to anticipate the future a little bit and get licensed there.
Vinnie Enriquez: Now you're, you've learned the process. You even said it took you two years to actually learn how to do a loan well, right? And so you're probably okay, build, learning how to build a team, how to, how to prospect, how to do marketing. Right. And now when you expand into Florida, you're doing it basically a second time. I know you probably already have your structure in place and it's just about adapting over there. Yet you're, you're putting your name out into a new market. So how did you roll out your name in a brand new market? What were you doing when you, when you expanded?
Alejandro Szita: Well, you know, I was lucky. It came in an organic way because I have been in, you know, in, even though I look, I look young, I'm a little bit older, so I have been in around for quite a while. So a lot of the people that I knew in California moved to Florida, and some of them are realtors. So they started to forward business to me.
Vinnie Enriquez: Oh, gotcha.
Alejandro Szita: So it wasn't difficult. I didn't really have to do much since I already have actually had the opposite effect, the opposite problem. I had these people trying to give me business and I said, please don't give it to me. I'm not licensed. I cannot touch it. And I said, no, you, you have to do it. You have to do it. So they forced me.
Vinnie Enriquez: Well then, I mean, have you thought about expanding it outside of Florida into other states then too?
Alejandro Szita: I've thought about Tennessee, because Tennessee, you know, the southeast area, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, all of those states, they are flourishing. It's amazing that what used to be the backwards south is becoming now the, the avantgarde of the nation. Those places are really like booming up. I have thought about it, but you know, there is only so much you can do. So for now, I'm opening an office in Florida very soon, an actual office. So I'm not thinking about expanding to these other states yet.
Vinnie Enriquez: Does your, when you're doing a loan in California, compared to Florida, do you have different processors that work on the different files?
Alejandro Szita: Actually, I was lucky to find a processor that is licensed in several states and she's licensed in California and she's licensed in Florida. They have a team of 15 people so they can process a big volume. And they have been doing this for 20 years. So I'm lucky that I have such a powerful partner now. So to answer your question, they know how to process a loan in California or in Florida or in Tennessee or in any of those states.
Vinnie Enriquez: How, how do you make sure that, because I mean for people listening, the process is a little bit different. It can be a little bit different from state to state. I mean, some are extrastate, some are non-extrastate. Some attorneys. Even the timeframes of how long an escrow is right, can, can vary from state to state. It means, so how do you keep the your process of being very hands-on the same yet making sure that your team is on the ball and they're basically doing the California way or they're doing the Florida way, they're doing the Tennessee way while still having the Alejandro touch on it.
Alejandro Szita: That took me a while. That took me years. And I have read a lot of motivational books, probably you've read them too. And they all say the same thing and one thing they say, find what you're good at, concentrate on that and delegate the rest. So it took me many years to find, like this team that I'm talking about, it took me many years to find the people that I could delegate, the parts that I could do, but I didn't, you know, even maybe I was not that good at it or I could not do them fast enough. That's the processing. What I'm good at is this, you know, I always say to my team, you have to think from the general and then go to the particular, which is the exact reverse that people in lending do. You know, you, you call a mortgage broker, the first thing they say, what's your credit score? What is your income? I don't do that. Nothing at all. For half an hour, sometimes to an hour. Just listen to their story. Because I go from the general to the particular, and that's what I can do well. I can do well the consultation, I can do well to see where the person is at in life. And I can do well in selecting the program that in my opinion, fits his need. And if he doesn't, that's okay. I change it to whatever he wants. But I'm good at that and I'm good at explaining it. Once we settle on what we're going to do, there are certain parts that now I found the team members that I can delegate it to. So my touch comes at the beginning, my touch comes in the designing, and my touch comes in converting the borrower into a team member.
Because that's another thing that sometimes impresses people. Is that a loan, it's not that you come to me and I say, you're approved and you're done. No, that's the beginning. We, we, we marry, it's like becoming married with me and the borrower for 30 days where we're going to constantly be exchanging information, exchanging strategies. So that's what I do. I convert the person into a team member. I say, this is what we're going to do. This is my opinion. If you don't want it, okay, we can change it here and there. And then I nurture it all the way along while the, the people that are really good at specific things do their job. I don't know if that makes sense.
Vinnie Enriquez: Yeah. I mean, no, definitely. I mean, and that, that's, I think that's huge for a lot of people listening. Not not in the real estate field or not in the, the mortgage field, but, and in all the other fields of, of learning how to delegate and understanding what, like you said, what you're good at, right? I mean, you can't be great at everything. I mean, you have to basically know your weaknesses and know your strength and, and delegate the rest. And that could be very difficult.
Alejandro Szita: It is very difficult. It is very difficult because one thing that makes it difficult is that very few people, or maybe no one will do it with the level of care and detail that you want. And then sometimes you get upset, sometimes you, but it doesn't work that way. You, you realize later that, I learned sooner, unfortunately, that you have to take people, you have to take the good of people and work with that and just ignore the bad. Once you come to that realization, although I've read this in many books, motivational books and so on, you know, but one thing is to read it, another thing is to live it. So once you live it and you understand that, now you can do it.
Vinnie Enriquez: I had someone on the podcast more recently, and they talked about, you know, what if, if you didn't have those, those stresses, if you didn't have those, those things that popped up, everyone would be doing it. That's why you get paid the dollars. Right.
Alejandro Szita: And not only that, you know, Rich Dad and Poor Dad, in one of his books. You know, when Robert Kiyosaki was failing and failing and failing, he went to his rich dad, and his rich dad said to him, according to what he says on the book, you have to fail faster, and again, fail faster. And it's so true. Failure is your teacher. The more you fail, you have to fail really, really, really fast. So you acquire a lot of experience in a short amount of time. Don't be afraid of failure. Everything that I know today, pretty much everything has come from 80% failure, 20% knowledge.
Vinnie Enriquez: Yeah, no, I, I totally agree with you. I mean, you've talked about the different steps you've made, the different growth, the different expansion. I mean, where do you see yourself and your company in the next five years?
Alejandro Szita: Well my, my goal is to buy a bank. And I'll tell you why. Because this idea that we have that you go to the local bank, you put your savings, your savings are used in the community for the growth of everyone. And then you are a partner of the bank. That idea is dead and has been dead for tens of years because all the big banks are not interested on that. The big banks are in the business of buying weapons. They are in the business of trading, of, of computer trading. They don't care about you. Not even a nanoparticle. That irks me. Why? Because money is the thing that is in most people a barrier. However, money is plentiful. There is nothing more abundant than money. Money is even on the street. You can just walk into it, you know. This is something that doesn't come from me. A friend told me this, you know, money is so abundant, you can even find it on the street. And he's right. However, it messes people's lives. Why messes people lives? Because we, we have, I would say a minority of bankers and we have a minority of financial people that are thinking beyond the transaction. You know what I mean by beyond the transaction? Once you do a transaction, it's not just a transaction. You are affecting your community. You are affecting your family. This really, as years go by and I do more transaction becomes more and more apparent to me. You know, I do this job not just to pay my bills. I do this job because I love it. I'm passionate and I want to make a difference. And I see that, see that if more people thought that way, many of the problems we have today would not exist. And we live in a community, we are not an island. You know, we live in a community. And you don't need a lot of people thinking this way. You know, you only need a minority, 1%, 3%. Actually, I read a book, I read a book by Ralph Nader, and he's totally right. He said, you only need between 1% to 3% of people to change the world because everyone else follows. And that can be for good or for bad. This idea of me only and it's business only, I think that it doesn't really work. You really have to think about the community. So that's why I want to have a bank. I want to have a bank to do what people think that they're doing when they go to their big bank and they have no clue that their big bank is not only not doing that, they give a about them.
Vinnie Enriquez: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it's something that we've talked about and I, I know it's not directly what you're talking about. And I mean, when you talk about money is plentiful, if you have a great opportunity and now the, it's relative how you define great. And can you sell the idea of great, but if you have a great opportunity, money's going to be available. I mean, the easiest way to describe it is if, if you're, if you find, if you're a realtor out there and you find a property that you can get it drastically below market value, there's someone out there that's going to give you the money or let you borrow the money to get that property, fix the property up, and resell the property. So if there's opportunity, there's going to be money available.
Alejandro Szita: Yes. And Rich Dad says that too. He says, don't worry about the money, find the deal. If the deal is good, money will come.
Vinnie Enriquez: Exactly. well, and thank you Alejandro, for, for being on the, the Road to Growth podcast. If someone's listening and they're looking to buy in California, do any kind of loan in California or Florida, maybe Tennessee, I mean, what's the best way of them reaching out to you?
Alejandro Szita: The best way is to send me an email at info@prosperitylending.us. So info@prosperitylending.us, or go to my website, which is the same, pretty much, it's www.prosperitylending.us. And we're coming out with a book about money. So if you go to the website, www.prosperitylending.us/book, just put your email address and you're going to be one of the first ones to get a few free chapters.
Vinnie Enriquez: I'm going to finish off with this very last question. You talked about the idea that you're, you're, you come from an affluent community or affluent family in, in Chile. And so that probably means that your, your family had education when it came to, to money. And I know you talked about the banker and everything like that. How long did it take for you to be in the lending field before your family was taking financial advice from you?
Alejandro Szita: Could you rephrase that? Something I didn't understand?
Vinnie Enriquez: Yeah, so being that, like when someone gets into a field sometimes, like financial advising, right? Or if, if they're already doing some sort of financial advising, right? It sometimes, your biggest critic can be the people that you have around you, right? Because they've seen you being a kid, right? And then growing up in the ranks and then learning, right? Yes. So how long did it take for, for that process of you being in the field before they go, hey, hey son, I need your advice on this thing. How long did it take you?
Alejandro Szita: Oof. Decades.
Vinnie Enriquez: Decades, okay.
Alejandro Szita: Decades. Yes, because so I'm just, I'm just the brother, you know? Or I'm just the son. However, when they see that other people that they admire then come to me now, oh, oh, maybe, maybe I should, maybe I should talk to him. But that thing took decades.
Vinnie Enriquez: So for people listening right there, I mean, it's, I mean, have faith in yourself. You're going to have people in your corner. I mean, because I, I bet you Alejandro's family was fully on board. They, they gave him all the feedback, him all the love, and wanted to see him.
Alejandro Szita: Actually, it was the reverse.
Vinnie Enriquez: Oh it was the reverse. Okay.
Alejandro Szita: Mom said, you cannot do that. You cannot do these contracts. You know, you are, are you serious? You are like, you cannot do this to your brother. You cannot do this to your friends. You know, you are very greedy, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that, that was my, my initial.
Vinnie Enriquez: But you had, but you probably had other people in your corner, right? That were telling you could do it.
Alejandro Szita: That came later. That came later.
Vinnie Enriquez: Okay. So, I mean, at least have faith in yourself. I mean, have faith in yourself. I mean, it's about growing without expanding. And you know, what, if Alejandro didn't say yes to the opportunity, because it, he talked about it a couple times where opportunities arose and he could have said, you know what, I don't want to go to that. I don't want to do that. I don't want to hear about that. But he was willing and open to at least hearing it out. Right? You're not going to know what's possible if you don't have your ears open. Thank you guys for listening. Please go in the show notes, go find Alejandro, subscribe, share, and reach out to Alejandro. Thanks guys. Have a great one.
Alejandro Szita: Thank you Vinnie.
