Episode 177: Fabian Candelario
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Fabian Candelario!
To watch the full episode, check it out on YouTube below. In the meantime, here’s a transcript of the conversation…
here’s what you missed from Fabian Candelario…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Fabian Candelario.
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Brad: You’re listening to The Brad and Taylor Show, a podcast that inspires entrepreneurs to pursue their passions. We’re sitting down with some of the best to learn how they got started and some lessons they learned along the way.
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Taylor: Hey, how are you doing?
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Fabian: Hey, how’s it going, Brad and Taylor? Thank you for having me.
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Brad: Good. Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Fabian: Yeah, again, my name is Fabian Candelario. I’m a real estate investor and entrepreneur. I’ve been involved in real estate for probably 13 years now, licensed for about 10. So I do everything from working with your sellers, buyers, investors, really trying to help them find their dream home and navigate through a very difficult process, but ultimately try to make it as easy as possible for them. I do residential and commercial real estate. I also have a team on the real estate side called The Candelario Group. I also have a renovation company that I could talk a little bit more about here in a little bit, but yeah, that’s pretty much me in a nutshell.
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Brad: Awesome! You got a lot of things going on. Tell us how did you got started in all this? Like what business did you start first? Which ones did you go to? And like how’d you get started?
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Fabian: Yeah. So, you know, right out of college, I was in the financial sector. I was a financial consultant, and I did that for several years, which was a very strong foundation to what I have going on right now, because it allowed me to learn how to leverage different loan programs, different financial programs, and unique ways of acquiring properties, whether that was leveraging my equity in my homes or going after tax lien properties. These are all things that I share with my clients because I feel that it’s my fiduciary responsibility, that the knowledge that I’ve gained over the years to help my clients out and really get their real estate portfolio or just overall what they’re looking to accomplish, help them out there. But I would say, 13 years ago, I started off by renting out my houses to international students.
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I was in college at the time. I was dating a girl from South Africa, who’s now my wife. So my business partner and my strong better half on that side. But, you know, the international director would always call and say, Hey, I need to house some students. So I say, Hey, why don’t we buy a house and just dedicate the house to the international department? And that’s what we did. And that’s where we really started off on a real estate venture and really learned how to just work within homes, fixing them up. At that time, I used to try to do a lot of the work, everything from the carpet to flooring and whatnot, but I found that that wasn’t my strong point. Let’s just say that I was good at what I was doing but I really relied on my team and my contractors, which really evolved into what we have going on today with Blue Square Renovation which is a renovation company.
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I can’t talk highly enough about my team and my business partners and how proud I am of just the services and work that we provide to our customers. We really want to give them that HDTV kind of feel through our service. We give access to our customers with an app. So they really have a good idea of the expectations on the renovation process and what’s next in the process. But you know, we give them design interior managers and we have creative financing options, so they can take on some larger projects, but I’ve always felt it was extremely important to bring more value to our customers while creating a positive experience throughout the whole process.
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Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. I know you’ve got a lot going on with that. You mentioned you have a team now as well for the real estate side too. So when did you bring on your first team member for that and how does that look right now for you?
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Fabian: Yeah, right now in today’s market, it is very aggressive. We’ll say that. You have to be Johnny on the spot and it doesn’t matter what you’re going on. If you have plans, they’re canceled because if that house hits the market, we have to get out there as fast as possible. So what I did was I wanted to be able to get my customers and the properties to answer their questions immediately. So I grew my team. That way, my customers can get a hold of me or my business partners. It’s just to really give them a better chance to get in the property. That’s what’s really important, to be able to get our customers in the property, kind of explain the situation, get the inspectors, line up the title, companies, things like that. We have a very good team on that process even if they’re looking at a difficult situation of selling their home and buying a property, which is very difficult to do right now, because inventory is really low in the market but you know, there are ways to do that. And some of the processes that we’ve created are giving our customers a very successful chance of getting to the properties.
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Taylor: Yeah. That’s awesome. When you first started, you said you’ve been in real estate for 10 years now. 13 years.
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Fabian: Yeah. So when I bought my first property, it was 13 years ago. I wasn’t licensed then, but I’ve been licensed now for 10 years. So the first three years I was just doing it as a private investor. And then I realized, you know what, I want to get my license so I can have better access to these properties.
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Taylor: Okay. When you got your license, how did that first transaction go from you after that one?
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Fabian: It was an experience. Some of my team members now, I tell them, I’m saying, I envy you because the first property that I looked at was a $10,000 property. So now it’s a lot higher and I’m glad I’ve had success on that side. But from the first start of where I was to now, it’s definitely leaps and bounds, but it involves a lot of work, a lot of dedication, and being able to give my customers a lot more value today than I did in the beginning.
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Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. I know you mentioned investment properties, I’m sure you’ve seen a handful of ones that maybe you don’t want to step back into, which one is the worst property that you can think of?
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Fabian: Okay. So I have a pretty good one for that one. I was in a property. I was on the east side of Cleveland. I think it was for an investor and walking through the property, I kid you not, I saw a rat that had to be this size. I feel like every time I tell this story, the rat gets bigger. I mean, now it’s, and now it’s the size of a master splinter from ninja turtles. But yeah, it was huge. I mean, it hadn’t been the size of a cat. I mean, it was huge. And it’s just, when you’re not expecting to see a rat, you know.
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Taylor: What did you do? What was your reaction to that?
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Fabian: I’m not going to say it was one of the manliest screams I’ve had in my life, but when you’re not expecting to see a rat that size, you kind of just find, oh boy, but you know, I kind of jumped back and I did everything you would think is normal in that time, but I definitely let out a screech that I was not proud of.
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Taylor: Was it when they’re with you or were you by yourself?
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Fabian: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was kind of one of those moments where like, you’re trying to like protect them, but protect yourself like oh it was an experience and yeah it was a huge rat. That was probably one of my, I mean, I have plenty of stories where I’ve seen all types of things, but I think the funnier story was that one right there with the rat.
00:07:54:25 –> 00:07:59:05
Taylor: Did he end up getting that one? I know you mentioned you were there with the investor.
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Fabian: So that one, they did not go with it. They went with a different property, that was all in vain, we still got enough. We still got another property that we went with.
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Taylor: Yeah. Only if that one went through though. Right. That would’ve been a cool story. Like we even saw a rat, I still closed the deal.
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Fabian: Yeah. Right, right. No, yeah. That would have been a nice one to say I did, but unfortunately, we did not get that one closed. We got another one, but it was huge.
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Taylor: That’s funny. I’m probably not going to forget that one. I’m picturing it, like the whole scenario. Only to have been there in person.
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Fabian: Just a master splitter. If you ever want to remember the story,
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Taylor: That’s funny. What kind of goals do you have for the rest of this year and going into the next year? I know you’ve got a lot going on, but what are your goals right now?
00:08:47:07 –> 00:09:51:11
Fabian: Yeah, so another thing that I started last year was a nonprofit called Community Action Development. Essentially what this non-profit’s mission is to help families that are in need of really rehabilitating and renovating their homes. Maybe they’re in a distress situation but go in there, take them out, and put them in a hotel for a couple of weeks, and really get their property value back up to par. Not only that, the next step, which is helping them leverage, which is their biggest collateral, their home, and teaching them how to use their equity. Maybe get different lines of credit to maybe get them out of debt or maybe start a business or do different things, but just leverage that equity to really help them out. So my goal for the next year is to help out as many families as I can to put them in a better situation and to ultimately teach them some of the things that I’ve been lucky enough to learn throughout my years in the financial sector to just put their family in a better situation.
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So it aligns with everything that I’ve been able to do in my career from a real estate, financial, renovation standpoint to kind of putting it all together to really do good in the community. I would say of all the goals that I have going on, that would be one that I would love to see, just help out as many families as we can.
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Taylor: Yeah. That’s awesome. Are these families local to what area?
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Fabian: They’re going to be in Lorraine and Cuyahoga county initially, but you know, this is something that we’re hoping to take across city lines, state lines. We really think that this is a cause that a lot of the city officials and counties can get behind and really help people in need. We’re targeting a very local area, but we do have big ambitions and big goals to try to get as many people as we can.
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Taylor: Yeah. That’s awesome. How can people get a hold of you for this specific?
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Fabian: Yeah, so for the nonprofit, they can call me directly at (440) 396-8960. And then we also have a website with it being a onecommunityactiondevelopment.com, which I can send that information as well. There’s a couple of ways that they can get a hold of us, whether it’s the website or calling directly.
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Taylor: Perfect. If you could start over today, what’s one thing that you would change? What’s one thing you’d do completely differently now?
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Fabian: I wouldn’t sell Bitcoin. I feel like it’s always the first thing I think of as investing. But overall, I’ve gone through a lot of experiences throughout life, whether good or bad. I always try to take it with a learning approach. It’s allowed me to grow as an individual, grow as a family man, business partner, friends, all the above. There’s a lot of things that I could say differently, but they’re always going to come off as aww, I never sold this, or I could have done this transaction a bit different, but you know, I have a son and daughter now and I just try to do everything I can to give them as much as I can give them. I would say just overall, a lot of the experiences that I’ve had just helped me grow to be an individual. But ultimately if I had to answer that question directly, just don’t sell Bitcoin.
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Brad: I like it. I like it. Do you read any business books? If so, what’s your favorite one?
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Fabian: Yeah, I’ve read many business books, but the one that I like is a straightforward one called Who Moved My Cheese? I love that book, have you guys heard of that book before? It’s a great story because it essentially talks about these moms who would go through a certain path every single day, and they knew where the cheese was, and they just got comfortable, complacent doing that same path every single day. Eventually, the cheese ran out and there were two groups of miles that ended up trying different paths and they ended up finding other areas of cheese in the analogy that the book has. The overall meaning is just, not to get complacent, just whatever you’re doing today, it’s working and that’s great, always have different means of getting to where you want to be and always being proactive and working hard. Even though you’re having success today, just don’t get comfortable. And then you can see that with big businesses that have the ones who have grown exponentially is that they’re always looking to take risks and be proactive. It’s a great book. It’s very simple, but it’s one that has always stuck with me for a very long time.
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Taylor: I feel like that one would be very fitting too because markets are always changing. Everything is always fluctuating.
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Fabian: Absolutely, absolutely. That’s in that stats again, that’s the main point of the story, the only thing that’s constant is change and we just can’t get comfortable. And just always trying to strive even at a hundred percent, whether you have a hundred percent today figuring out a way to give, you know, 120 and whether that’s in business, relationships, just being in that moment and really striving for greatness.
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Taylor: Perfect. Before we go today, can you have everybody or tell everybody your contact information one more time?
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Fabian: Yeah, absolutely. A couple of ways that you can get a hold of me. From a real estate perspective, my direct line is 4 4 0 3 9 6 8 9 6 0. My email address is [email protected]. And then for the renovation side, it’s simply [email protected].
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Brad: Sweet. I like it. That’s awesome. Hey, thanks for coming and sharing your story with us today.
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Fabian: Absolutely. Brad, I appreciated it. Can’t say anything more positive about the company, WindowStill by the way. Thank you. You guys are phenomenal. I really do mean that I’ve been taking pictures. I started off taking pictures on my phone, which was not the best way to do it, but I’ve dealt with many photographers and you guys are awesome at what you do. So I really want to say thank you for being a strategic business partner. Thank you.
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Check out Fabian Candelario:
https://www.russellrealty.com/agents/4705/Fabian+Candelario
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