An Interview with Deborah Razo

By Christina Suter on Dec 02, 2017 at 08:16 AM in Real Estate Issues
An Interview with Deborah Razo

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Deborah Razo. Deborah is going to be the guest at my FIBI Pasadena meeting in January. Deborah started her first business in 1990 and after owning and partnering in several successful small businesses, she realized that her path to financial freedom was through real estate investing. Deborah has a flair for fixing and flipping properties, from purchase, rehabbing, marketing and sale processes to tools and techniques for locating properties and analyzing market values to capitalize on opportunities for profit. Deborah is also a Sr. Leader for the Tony Robbins organization.

Deborah says she learned when you progress in business you have to learn to be flexible in your mind and learn to do things a different way. We are creatures of habit but we have to learn to change what we're thinking in order to get different outcomes. Deborah wanted to apply what she learned as an entrepreneur to real estate and she developed a personal investment philosophy. She adopted flipping and decided to reinvest the money from her flips and buy and hold long-term cash flow. She knew what she wanted out of real estate was freedom of her time. Real estate isn't a hard game she says, but it is work and it can be mentally taxing. Deborah considers herself a creative problem solver and when you run your business you only get phone calls when there's a problem. 

On her first flip, using her reinvest philosophy, she made almost $100,000 and she said she became like a junkie because her five months worth of work had paid off so well. But she couldn't get another property to save her life she says, even after putting out offer after offer. She became disheartened when future projects would only net her about $30K and she had to stop and think about what is it she was willing to make on something and what her personal ROI (return on investment) was. Deborah said she started to realize she actually needed something I, Christina, coined, called 'sleep at night money'. She wanted some cushion so she wasn't stressed.

Personal Growth and Real Estate

At our January meeting, Deborah will be talking about personal growth and real estate and I think it's an important to discuss the capacity and ability to double down during hardship. Deborah says she's realized when you're out there trying you get disheartened and your energy starts to wane. She said she was blessed to have many mentors and coaches and was at a similar point herself and one of her mentors told her she was version 1.0 and she needed to be version 2.0 but she didn't even know what that was. So she had to ask what she could look at differently, and what she could learn from her mess-ups, instead of why me questions. She said she it's the mindset of keeping at it as well as the practical side of how to do transactions. 

Deborah also says your network, including your team and the people you reach out to for support, are important. There are people who have dealt with problems you've never faced whose advice can be invaluable. She started a Women's Real Estate Network (WREN) for that exact reason and she's a leader in the industry. A few years ago she was at a tough point and questioning what she was doing wrong and she wanted support from women who were juggling what she was juggling. She'd gotten lots of great help from men in the industry but she wanted to hear from and network with people who could relate to more of what she was dealing with. Women bring a cooperativeness and creativity to the table that's different than men. She and a group of 12 other women decided to meet often and they soon after developed a meetup and now have speakers and a collaborative networking support system for each other. 

I started FIBI Pasadena during a downturn and I knew I had to be accountable. Deborah and WREN really inspired me and this upcoming year, 2018 all of my meetings will have female speakers and I'm so excited to hear what the women I've lined up will bring. (I actually have one male speaker who's rolling over from 2017, but he'll be the only male speaker.) Deborah is kicking off the Year of Women Rock Stars in Real Estate at FIBI Pasadena meetings. 

Deborah says her personal growth in a male-dominated field and the difference between working with women is men are a lot more competitive and women are more collaborative.

"We enter the workforce and we're doing business in the etiquette dictated by men. We do business with a masculine mask on."

For her, it was the realization that she could own her femininity and still do business. Males and females need each other in business and when both operate in their own personal power more productive and honest work happens. 

Deborah Razo can be reached at deborahrazo.com where you can get a free 30-minute consultation. You can learn more about WREN at www.wreninspires.com or you can contact her via email at [email protected].