
Advertise on podcast: The Big Break Show Podcast
Rating
4.8from
This podcast has
115 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Rafa LozaExplicit
Yes
Date created
2021/12/02
Latest episode
2026/09/04
Average duration
44 min.
Release period
6 days
Description
Your go-to podcast for real estate investing, business acquisitions, mindset, and lifestyle. Get expert tips, actionable strategies, and inspiring stories every week.
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Check latest episodes from The Big Break Show Podcast podcast
How To Never Lose A Customer Again | S3 - Episode 13 - Jason Cousineau
2026/09/04
You think you keep a customer by being likeable and good. You make the effort from the first 100 days..
Full Episode is out now on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcast!
#112 Jason Cousineau: The Real Estate Business Most Investors Have Never Heard Of | S3 - Episode 13
2026/09/03
Most people have never heard of the business Jason runs, and that is exactly why it works sowell. He takes old, dead buildings, empty offices, dead retail, whatever is sitting there, and turns them into salon suites that he rents out to hairstylists and beauty pros. It cash flows,it scales, and almost nobody is competing for it.
Here is what got me. His tenants are business owners who do not want to give 40 to 60 percent of their money to a salon owner, so they happily pay him for their own space. He buys these buildings around 1.1 million and sells them for over 2 million, and keeps the cash flow the whole way. Then he runs a system on the back end that keeps those tenants for years, so the income does not churn.
I have spent my whole career in short-term rentals and this conversation still made me rethink what a scalable real estate business can look like. If you have ever wanted cash-flowing real estate that is not another Airbnb, this is the model to study.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Who Jason is and the business nobody knows about
3:45 - From a college painting franchise into real estate
7:16 - What salon suites actually are
8:15 - How he stumbled into the model
10:15 - Why marketing makes or breaks any business model
12:35 - Why beauty pros pay for their own suite
16:22 - How this is arbitrage for commercial buildings
18:24 - Why it scales faster than buying rentals
19:16 - How he raises capital for each deal
20:39 - Buy for $1.1M, sell for $2.1M: the spread
31:19 - The first 100 days system that keeps tenants for years
40:29 - The exact market he looks for
42:28 - How he uses local partners as boots on the ground
1:00:11 - Where to find Jason
CONNECT WITH JASON
Instagram: @jasoncousineau
The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?
Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
Business Partnerships: What 9 Years of Good and Bad Deals Taught Me | Solo Podcast
2026/08/27
I have made just about every business partnership mistake there is. Some of my partners became people I now call family. Others cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and a lawsuit I am still cleaning up. In this solo episode I break down everything nine and a half years of both taught me.
I walk through how I structure the deal end to end: how I split equity, how I vet who I let in, active versus money partners, partnering with friends and family, and how to catch a partnership that is drifting before it ends up in court. The thread through all of it, and I say it flat out at the end, is that almost every problem traces back to roles. Clear roles, in writing, with people who give as much as they take.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Why I'm doing a whole episode on partnerships
2:24 Every partnership problem traces back to one thing
3:37 The 3 things a partner must bring: time, money, or experience
6:23 The principle that keeps a partnership from breaking
10:15 Define the roles before anyone does anything
12:36 The deal I did with no contract, and what it cost me
13:02 How to structure equity splits fairly
15:00 Why aligned goals matter more than the money
21:40 The partner who wanted 70 percent, and why I walked
26:53 The partnership that turned into a lawsuit
31:16 The red flags I ignored
38:05 What to actually put in your contract
42:49 The clauses that protect everyone
45:02 Why I always pay my investors back
47:12 It all comes back to roles
Join my community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
Follow me on Instagram: @itsrafaloza
The Big Break Show drops new episodes every week. Follow the show so you never miss one.
#111 The Business Partnership Mistake That You Want to Avoid | S3 - E12
2026/08/26
Episode 12 Releasing tomorrow!
A mistake from a business partnership you can do once is to pick the wrong person, this is the exact topic i will share from the full episode, and this is just a tiny bit of what i had to share, I walk through how I structure the deal end to end: how I split equity, how I vet who I
let in, active versus money partners, partnering with friends and family, and how to catch a partnership that is drifting before it ends up in court. The thread through all of it, and I say it flat out at the end, is that almost every problem traces back to roles. Clear roles, in writing, with people who give as much as they take.
Stay Tuned!
Annie of HelloHost: AI Guest Messaging That Answers Your Airbnb Guests 24/7
2026/08/13
Guest messages never stop. Check-in times, the wifi password, is there a blow dryer, the door code, something is broken, and it all lands on you at the worst possible hour. That was my life for years, and it is the exact problem Annie set out to kill.
Annie is the co-founder of HelloHost, and before she built it she answered more than 10,000 guest messages herself while running a 16-unit retreat in Ontario. So this is not a founder guessing at what hosts need. She lived it. HelloHost is a team of AI agents that answer your guests in your own voice, around the clock, and quietly pull the maintenance tasks out of those conversations so
nothing slips through.
What sold me was not that it replies fast. It is that it replies well. Her team got the error rate down to 0.01 percent, and when they studied 1,800 guest reviews, almost none of them could even tell an AI was answering. It knows about 80 percent of your property from day one with no training,
and it asks you before it guesses on anything it is unsure of.
If you run rentals and your phone still buzzes at 2am with a guest asking how to get in, this is the conversation that shows you the way out.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro and who Annie is
0:41 - From management consultant to Airbnb host
2:25 - What HelloHost actually is
2:40 - The 16-unit retreat and 10,000 guest messages
5:42 - Why she went all in on AI guest communication in 2023
6:51 - What makes the message quality stand out
8:27 - The multi-agent system and the edge cases
9:56 - How it learns and asks before it guesses
17:01 - The 1,800 review study
23:10 - Getting the error rate down to 0.01 percent
26:42 - Setting your own confidence level
33:48 - 80 percent ready on day one, no training
35:25 - The 30 day free trial and 2 day setup
45:10 - Why Rafa calls it a no-brainer
59:07 - Where to find HelloHost and Annie
Tools I use to run my STR business:
Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!): hospitable.com/partners/rafael
HelloHost (AI guest communication): https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa
The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?
Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
#110 Why A Fast Reply Won't Save Your Airbnb Reviews | HelloHost
2026/08/13
Episode 11 Releasing in an HOUR!
On this episode, I said the part nobody wants to hear: speed is not the win. A fast reply that sends the wrong info or does not actually solve the problem just gets you a bad review faster.
I run all my guest messages on HelloHost, and the difference was not just speed. It answers to what the guest actually needs, so they stop second-guessing and just confirm and book.
My response rate went up and my reviews went up right along with it, because guests feel taken care of instead of handled.
#109 How Airbnb Revenue Management Really Works with Dan Rivers (Synergy Stays)
2026/08/06
Dan Rivers and I are in the same mastermind, and his team runs the pricing on some of my own properties, so this one is personal. He came up blue collar in Brockton, got thrown into managing 600 units with zero experience, and built Synergy Stays into one of the sharpest revenue teams in short term rentals. But the part that stuck with me was not the business.
Most people treat their nightly price like a slow cooker, set it and walk away. Dan makes the case that in 2026 that is exactly how you quietly lose money, because the platforms change the rules every month and an algorithm nobody is watching will happily underprice your best weekends. Then he flipped the whole conversation. He asked what feeling your goal is actually chasing, and once he started building toward calm and presence instead of a number, everything got clearer.
I have hit numbers that meant nothing the day I reached them. Dan put words to why.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Meet Dan Rivers
1:56 His first big break: 600 units, zero experience
3:28 Two open-heart surgeries and his second chapter
11:48 The breakfast meetup that rewired how he thinks
20:03 Thinking 100K a year meant he had made it
22:12 You only learn when you start losing (the 150K lesson)
24:38 Why he killed 6 businesses to focus on one
31:58 What Synergy Stays actually does
35:35 Why set it and forget it pricing is dead
39:47 The client who netted 38K more in a year
43:35 Goals vs feelings: the reframe that made the episode
50:00 Why he will never retire
51:52 Where to find Dan and Synergy Stays
Tools I use to run my rentals that saved me 10 hours a week:
Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF your first 30 days!
HelloHost: https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa
Want to learn how I actually use AI in my short-term rental business? Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
🔔 New episodes every Thursdays! subscribe so you don't miss them
#108 Dan Rivers: Why Doing Seven Things Made Him Fail At All Of Them
2026/08/05
Dan Rivers was running seven businesses at once and slowly bleeding money. The fix was not working harder. It was cutting six of them and going all in on the one thing he was already great at.
#107 How To Get Into Real Estate When You're Starting With Nothing | Carl Dumesle
2026/07/30
Carl Dumesle survived the 2010 Haiti earthquake at 15, then raised his three younger brothers before he ever touched real estate. I wanted him on because he builds at a level most people call impossible, and he treats it like it is nothing.
That is the thread through this whole conversation. Carl runs his development, architecture, construction, and management all under one roof, and the reason is not ego, it is control. Every piece he brought in-house was a failure point he refused to hand to someone else. If you have ever had a deal die because a contractor vanished or a permit dragged an extra year, this is the mindset that fixes it.
The part that stuck with me was not the buildings. It was how he handles hard things. When you have watched your school fall floor by floor in 50 seconds, a late permit stops feeling like a problem. Most people build a giant mental gap between where they are and where they want to be. Carl came in with no ceiling because he never knew one existed.
We also get into the two F's, feelings versus facts, the cleanest decision filter I have heard on this show, and why owning fewer, higher-quality assets with low leverage beats chasing doors you will spend years wishing you could offload.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Who is Carl Dumesle
2:30 Surviving the 2010 Haiti earthquake at 15
7:00 Becoming head of household for his brothers
9:16 Why he still does not feel successful
11:00 The first thing you have to predict is yourself
14:00 Why business problems are not real problems
16:13 The slingshot, the deeper the low the higher the launch
17:41 You are closer than you think
20:16 From a student-housing startup into development
22:55 The 25 percent margin rule
26:00 What actually makes a deal work
28:23 The two F's, feelings versus facts
31:00 How he flies under the radar on approvals
34:49 Controlling every pillar in-house
44:00 Partnerships, hire slow and fire fast
59:00 Extreme ownership with investors
1:03:47 Own less, hig
her quality, lower leverage
1:07:00 The takeaway
Connect with Carl Dumesle:
https://www.instagram.com/carldumesle/
Tools I use to run my rentals that saved me 10 hours a week:
Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF in your first 3 months!
HelloHost: hellohost.com/partners/rafael
Want to learn how I actually use AI in my short-term rental business? Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?
🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them
#106 Patryk Swietek: How To Run 150 Airbnbs Without Owning A Single One
2026/07/23
Most investors chase the wrong kind of income. They buy a door, watch a couple hundred
dollars trickle in every month, and wonder why the freedom never shows up. Patryk ran that
math and made a hard pivot.
He walked me through the moment it clicked. He owned a rental he bought for 306 thousand
that was worth 465, with a pile of equity just sitting in it, netting him around a thousand
a month. Then he looked at buying a co-hosting business for 165 thousand that was throwing
off close to fifteen thousand a month. Same money out the door. Completely different life.
He bought the business, kept buying more, and now runs 150 properties he does not own a
single one of.
We get into how he found and bought those companies, why he still works in the business
even though it runs without him, and what he plans to do with the money now. I have built
the operator side of this for years and this conversation still made me rethink where I put
the next dollar.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
0:57 - From corporate tech to short-term rentals
3:46 - Why he could never work for someone else
4:42 - Buying the co-hosting company in Joshua Tree
5:04 - Why passive income was never going to be enough
17:28 - Scaling the company and what happens next
19:15 - Why he still works in the business by choice
24:05 - The math that changed everything
36:44 - The takeaway that stuck with him
58:42 - Why he gave his team equity
1:05:17 - His big break moment
1:12:43 - What he actually wants to do with the money
1:13:32 - Where to find Patryk
CONNECT WITH PATRYK
Patryk Swietek, Owner of The Cohost Company
Instagram: @patryk_swi
Here's my Tool stack i use for my STR Business:
Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!) : hospitable.com/partners/rafael
HelloHost (AI guest communication): HellohostaiHelloHost | Rafa Recommended
The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?
I build and share my STR strategies by implementing AI and test them out for a free trial without spending anything for a week!
Join my community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
#105 The HR Expert Behind Tim Bratz: Why Your Top Performers Leave | Scott Hanis
2026/07/16
Most operators do not lose their business to the market. They lose it to a team that
was never set up to win. In this episode Rafa sits down with Scott Hanis, co-founder of
Fortitude HR Solutions and the man Tim Bratz brought in to build the structure behind
his company. Scott has scaled organizations, run HR for over a thousand employees, and
spent years fixing the exact team problems that quietly stall real estate operators.
Rafa gets honest about blowing up his entire virtual team, and Scott breaks down why
that almost always traces back to the leader, not the people. They get into the first
hire you should actually make, how to know when you can afford it, why culture and
values are worthless until you live them out loud, and the two lines from this episode
that will stick with you. People live up or down to your expectations. What you permit
is what you promote.
If you are trying to grow past doing everything yourself, this is the conversation that
shows you where it really breaks and how to fix it.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - Who Scott is and what Fortitude HR does
5:06 - How Tim Bratz convinced him to go all in
9:03 - Why he walked away from a corporate HR salary
11:52 - The first hire every operator should actually make
15:04 - When you can really afford to hire full time
19:29 - Rafa: why I blew up my entire team
21:41 - What culture and values really mean
27:03 - Mission and vision, and why most people skip it
29:51 - The three solutions rule
33:38 - People live up or down to your expectations
39:10 - Setting expectations in your personal life
47:05 - How faith shapes hiring and firing
51:25 - How to actually become a better leader
54:52 - What you permit is what you promote
56:34 - How AI is changing HR and where it gets dangerous
1:01:43 - Where to find Scott
CONNECT WITH SCOTT
Fortitude HR Solutions: https://fortitudehrsolutions.com
🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
just a note please add this tmoving forward for podcast description:
Tools I use to run my rentals:
Hospitable: hospitable.com/partners/rafael - 15% OFF in your first 3 months!
HelloHost: hellohost.com/partners/rafael
Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?
🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
#107 AI Agents That Runs Your Entire Airbnb Business with Jan Sahagun (Trellis, Y Combinator)
2026/07/09
Most people think running an Airbnb is passive. You list it, go to the beach, and the
money shows up. Anyone who actually does it knows the real job is the coordination. The
messages that never stop, the maintenance that has to get scheduled, the vendor who has
to be found and called, and the ten different tools that somehow have to talk to each
other.
In this episode Rafa sits down with Jan Sahagun, co-founder of Trellis, a Y Combinator
company building autonomous AI agents for short-term rentals. Trellis is not another
chatbot. It sits on top of the tools you already use, pulls all your operations into
one place, and runs AI agents that actually do the work. The agent talks to your guest,
figures out the problem, and if nobody on your team can fix it, it picks up the phone,
calls an outside contractor, and gets it scheduled. You just approve it.
Jan went from professional ice hockey in Europe to building one of the most talked about
AI companies in the short-term rental space. He and Rafa get into how you keep an AI
agent from going rogue, how much work it really takes to train it on your business, the
first thing smart operators should automate, and why you cannot just vibe code a real
software business. If you own or manage rentals, this is the conversation that shows you
where the next few years are going.
CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
2:06 - Meet Jan and what Trellis actually is
3:20 - From pro hockey to short-term rentals
5:51 - Why he built an AI that runs the business itself
8:03 - What happens when you plug your rentals in
15:39 - The agent that actually calls your vendors and staff
17:14 - How they keep the AI from going rogue
19:37 - How much work it takes to train it
22:44 - The first thing smart operators automate
23:38 - Zero to 3,000 listings in under three months
38:12 - What AI will replace and what it won't
50:40 - Why you cannot vibe code a real software business
56:09 - Jan's story: a broken ankle that changed everything
59:26 - Where to find Jan and try Trellis
TRY TRELLIS
Website: https://trellistech.com
Connect with Jan on LinkedIn: Jan Sahagun
Apps that i use for my Airbnb Business:
Hospitable: https://hospitable.com/partners/rafael
HelloHost: https://hellohost.com/partners/rafael
If you want to apply AI in your business to save time and earn more..
Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
Follow Rafa on Instagram: @itsrafaloza
The Big Break Show drops new episodes every Thursday. Follow the show so you never miss one.
#106 Why Owning More Airbnbs Is a Trap with Blake Carter
2026/07/02
Blake Anthony Carter is back on The Big Break Show for round two, and this one is a full playbook. He breaks down why he sold his co-living business to go all-in on short-term rentals, how he scaled his management company to around 90 quality units, and the exact systems that let it run without him. If you want to co-host, manage, or buy STRs, this is the episode to take notes on.
We get into the real numbers: how a management company actually sells, the sliding scale he uses to fire bad clients, the minimum revenue he needs to say yes, and how he wins deals with agents by giving away free help. Then we go deep on the stuff most operators skip: building a VA team, using AI for guest messaging, and running the whole business on EOS.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Welcome back, Blake (second time on the show)
1:05 What changed in 3 years, and why he sold the co-living business
1:33 Going all-in on short-term rentals
4:36 How he actually sold the company (the earn-out model)
7:12 Why you structure a sale with an earn-out
8:34 What a co-living or co-hosting company really sells for
9:50 Arbitrage, then co-host, then buy: the right order to start
10:47 How to actually get co-hosting clients (agents and BiggerPockets)
13:55 Referral fees and winning agents with free consulting
15:32 The furniture talk: why cheap clients quit in 4 months
19:40 How to fire bad clients using a 1 to 5 sliding scale
24:30 The minimum revenue rule: $70K or it is not worth it
26:02 The underwriting stack: Rabbu, AirDNA, and PriceLabs
27:53 The pitch to homeowners: cashflow, flexibility, and the STR tax loophole
34:15 Should you buy a management company? Best, not biggest
36:35 Building the team: local ops, QC, maintenance, and VAs
38:43 Using AI for guest messaging (HelloHost and Hospitable)
42:06 The experiential hotel: a stadium-seating pool, weddings, and full buyouts
47:08 EOS explained: how to actually run your business
50:28 When you should implement EOS
55:10 What is next for Blake: 120 units and $10M in bookings
58:06 The takeaway: run EOS even as a short-term rental operator
Here's my Tool stack i use for my STR Business:
Hospitable (Get your 15% Discount on your first 30 Days!) : hospitable.com/partners/rafael
HelloHost (AI guest communication): https://www.hellohostai.com/rafa
If you're wondering how I scaled my 7 figure business through Systems and AI Operations, Join my Skool community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
Connect with Blake: Blake Anthony Carter on all platforms (his free Skool is linked in his Instagram).
Subscribe to The Big Break Show for more real conversations with operators who are actually doing the deals. New Episodes every Thursday!
#105 How To Buy Multifamily Real Estate Without Partners or Investors with Trevor West
2026/06/26
Trevor B West is a multifamily real estate investor, faith-based entrepreneur, and one of the most in-demand event emcees in the real estate mastermind world. Before real estate, he spent his career as an Air Force special-forces intelligence analyst, building target packages alongside teams like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force. A snapped leg on a rugby field and twenty thousand dollars in debt forced a reset that pushed him into investing. Seven years later he owns more than 80 multifamily units across 17 buildings in Ohio, and he owns almost all of them outright, with no syndication and no partners. He now teaches the playbook on his YouTube channel, Trevor B West (@bettertrevor on Instagram).
In this episode, Rafa and Trevor break down:
Why multifamily is getting crushed in 2026, and the contrarian way he positioned to BUY the distress instead of becoming it. Over $160 billion in multifamily loans come due this year, and the operators sitting on five-year syndication debt are the ones being forced to sell.
Price over location. Why his mentor threw out "location, location, location" and replaced it with "price, price, price," and how buying far below market gives you room to survive every mistake.
Why he owns 100% of his portfolio with no partners and no investors to bail out when the loan resets, and the honest case for when a partnership is actually worth it.
The $940K deal. How he bought a 28-unit portfolio for $940,000, renovated it, and refinanced at $1.9 million, building a million dollars of equity with the BRRRR method (buy, renovate, refinance, repeat) in 14 months.
The shiny-object trap that quietly cost him tens of thousands in dead earnest money, and why picking one strategy and putting his blinders on changed everything.
Why a single property replaced the entire retirement he would have earned from 20 years in the military, and the mindset shift that comes with owning your first door.
How an intelligence analyst vets a deal like a target package, so he never wires money into a trap.
Why he turned the whole business over to God, and the one verse (Psalm 37:23) that has guided every move for two years.
─────────────────────────────────────
TIMESTAMPS
─────────────────────────────────────
0:00 - Intro
2:08 - Meet Trevor B West
3:19 - From Air Force intelligence analyst to 80+ units
7:11 - $20K in debt, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and the first deal
10:38 - The shiny-object trap that cost him tens of thousands
16:27 - Why multifamily is getting crushed in 2026 (and why he chose it)
18:54 - Price over location: the rule that beats the market
20:10 - The syndication trap and the 2026 maturity wall
23:17 - The $940K, 28-unit deal that built $1M in equity
26:35 - The real numbers: cash flow, equity, and $200 per door
32:01 - Why he owns 100% with no partners
39:11 - Leverage and delegation without losing control
42:05 - Rich Dad Poor Dad and why timing decides who it changes
43:20 - Faith, focus, and turning the business over to God
51:13 - Psalm 37:23: God cannot bless steps you never take
53:40 - How one property replaced a 20-year pension
56:44 - His big break: the feather, the hammer, and the train
60:25 - Where to find Trevor
🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?
🔗 Join the community: https://www.skool.com/the-airbnb-blueprint-rafaloza/about
🔔 New episodes every week! subscribe so you don't miss them.
#104 How He Bought 600 Rentals Before Turning 27 ft. Donato Callahan
2026/06/19
Donato Callahan is a real estate investor, software founder, and capital strategist who acquired nearly 600 units in commercial real estate before the age of 27. He graduated high school valedictorian and was recruited out of Boise State by the Department of Defense as a geospatial analyst, then walked away from a secure intelligence career to go all in on real estate. He house hacked his way in, lost money on his very first deal, and turned that failure into a 172-unit syndication just months later. Today he is the co-founder and CEO of Bright Investor (@donato_callahan), a deal-analysis platform built for investors and property managers, and the CFO of Timberview Capital, where he is helping scale the firm to 100 million dollars in annual capital. He is the proof that a few focused years can outrun a 40-year career.
In this episode, Rafa and Donato break down:
The 2-year sprint versus the 17-year sentence. Why a short window of extreme, isolating effort buys a life most people never touch, and how a coworker who "mentally prepared to do another 17 years" became the warning that pushed Donato out the door.
The failed 96-unit deal that built his entire career. How walking away from a "war zone" building in St. Louis and eating the loss on contractors got him invited into the room that handed him his first 172-unit deal.
Why being in the right room beats being the most talented person in it. The poolside conversation in Joshua Tree that turned into a CFO seat at Timberview, and why proximity to the right people creates opportunities that raw skill never will.
The exact first-deal playbook for a total beginner. House hack a two to four unit, get as close to zero out of pocket as possible, then trade sweat equity for someone else's capital on a 10 to 50 unit. The simple path most people overcomplicate into never starting.
How a teenager's NVIDIA bet led him to real estate. He picked the one stock that printed, watched COVID erase half of it overnight, and decided he needed assets he could actually control.
Syndication explained like you are five. What a general partner and a limited partner really do, how the splits are structured, and how someone with energy but no money partners with someone who has money but no time.
Inside Bright Investor, the software he built from his own pain points. How it surfaces on and off market deals, pulls sale and rent comps line by line, runs ten strategies side by side, and generates a lender-ready report, and why an investor who actually buys real estate builds a sharper tool than a banker ever could.
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CONNECT WITH DONATO
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🎙 The Big Break Show with Rafa Loza every Thursday.
Real operators. Real numbers. No fluff.
📲 Instagram: @itsrafaloza | STR specialist.
Wondering how and where to start your STR journey?
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Podcast reviews
Read The Big Break Show Podcast podcast reviews
Host Kelly Bailey 2023/09/11
Insightful Podcast w/ Great Guests
I know I’ve written a review prior but I don’t see it so adding this one! Jesse and Rafa are killin it in their furnished rental spaces with mid-term ...
Moneymarkus 2022/11/24
Simple, Basic, Informative
Jesse and Rafa give us the best of both worlds in terms of STR and MTR. They speak about the basics and foundation of how they started and how they gr...
Brenda in PHX 2022/11/07
The most tactical & best mindset podcast for beginners & experienced investors!
Thank you both so much for all the wonderful advice to help us get started on our STR journey. I’ve been stuck in analysis paralysis for almost a year...
jamie472728 2022/06/29
Great pod
Great show, awesome prospective from two successful long time STR operators.i like how transparent they are and tell the truth about how a business is...
sgrieger 2022/06/07
Great Insight
Jesse and Rafa offer achievable advice and insight on short/mid term rentals. A great listen and resource.
eknockemout 2022/03/03
Experienced perspectives and actionable advice
There are plenty of real estate podcasts available such as the famed BiggerPockets Podcast but both Rafa and Jesse do an amazing job narrowing the foc...
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