The Norris Group Real Estate Podcast

I Survived Real Estate Part 6: Legends Investor Panel (continuation) #940

• The Norris Group, Craig Evans

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I SURVIVED REAL ESTATE 2025

The Norris Group Presents: The 18th Annual I Survived Real Estate – LIVE at the Nixon Presidential Library

The Norris Group’s award-winning black-tie gala, I Survived Real Estate, returns for its 18th year.  Since 2008, I Survived Real Estate has supported Make-A-Wish OC & IE—and thanks to your generosity, we’ve now raised over $1.2 million for children in need 

This year’s backdrop?


A California housing market still starved for inventory, mortgage rates hovering above comfort zones, affordability hitting generational lows, inflation and tariffs. Add in global uncertainty, sticky inflation, and the ever-watchful eye of the Federal Reserve—and you’ve got a landscape full of questions.

  • Inventory Drought: California’s housing supply remains critically low
  • Rate Pressure: Mortgage rates linger well above buyer comfort zones
  • Priced Out: Affordability has collapsed to generational lows
  • Global Tensions: War, tariffs, and instability rattle investor confidence
  • Inflation’s Grip: Costs remain stubbornly high, squeezing margins
  • Tariff Troubles: Rising import costs could ripple through construction and development
  • All Eyes on the Fed: Every rate hint could send shockwaves through the market

 Our expert panel brings top minds in economics, investing, and housing to help us prepare for what’s next. I Survived Real Estate was born from crisis, with a mission to unite thought leaders, give back, and guide our industry forward. 


In this episode:

  • Pete Fortunato shares practical guidance for new investors entering the business.
  • Tony Alvarez reflects on how intention and mindset shape long-term success.
  • Bruce Norris opens up about personal challenges and what it took to push through.
  • Bruce and Tony discuss why mistakes are powerful teachers in real estate.
    Pete Fortunato explores how smart investors balance risk with opportunity.
  • Tony Alvarez talks about facing fear and moving forward with confidence.
  • Bruce Norris highlights how helping others creates lasting impact and success.


The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669.  For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.


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Narrator:

Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a show committed to bringing you insights from thought leaders shaping the real estate industry. In each episode, we'll dive into conversations with industry experts and local insiders, all aimed at helping you thrive in an ever-changing real estate market. continuing the legacy that Bruce Norris created, sharing valuable knowledge, and empowering you on your real estate journey. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newcomer, this is your go-to source for insider tips, market trends and success strategies. Here's your host, Craig Evans.

Joey Romero:

The Norris Group is proud to present our 18th annual gala. I Survived Real Estate at The Nixon Presidential Library on Friday, September 12. Since 2008, our event has raised well over a million dollars. This year, we'll be raising funds again from Make-A-Wish OC and IE. Individual Tickets are available now. To get your tickets, go to isurviverealestate.com click the link here in the card. We would like to thank the following platinum sponsors, uDirectIRA Services, The San Diego Creative Investors Association, DouglasBrooke Homes, MVT Productions, Realty411, and DBL Capital.

Pete Fortunato:

If I had tell you something you start, where you start is you have to dream. You have to say, 'I can make my life. I can do something with this. I can be free to do the things I want to do'. And you need to make a promise to yourself that you're going to make it happen. Many of you have heard me talk about going into my junior year in high school, and the guidance counselor said,'What do you want to be after you get out of high school?' And I said, 'Unemployed'. And the guidance counselor didn't know how to answer that, so she sent me to the principal, and I had to explain to both of them that being unemployed does not mean that you're destitute. It means you have enough assets to provide your income. You have to dream of having enough assets to fund your lifestyle. Then after you've had the dream, you have to start going out and doing it. You have to say, 'God gave me a life. I'm going to do something good with it'. I have a prayer that I say regularly, 'Thank you for my talents and thank you for my life. I promise to use them well', and I go out every day trying to keep that promise. I go out and I started with a dream. I told everyone, I'm going to get enough assets so that I can do whatever I damn well please. I'm never going to raise my hand again and ask permission after I got out of school. And 200 offers I made in the first two years in real estate, and not one closed. Some of them were accepted, but not one closed. And finally, one closed.

Bruce Norris:

Wow.

Pete Fortunato:

And then another one closed. But it's your life. It's your dream. It's your promise. You make the dream, then you start pursuing it. And when you start, you'll finally get one, and then you get another. And the next thing you know, you're not a starter anymore. You've gone from dreamer to starter now you're an estate builder, and you'll build that estate to the point where you'll get better and better, and you'll have enough, and you really can be free to do what you want, and then you become an Ender. And that doesn't mean your life is over. It means you've got enough assets to do whatever you want. Once you've got those assets so that you're free to do whatever you want, then you're free to be even more significant by helping others in other ways. And you can make that life for starts by dreaming and making a promise to yourself.

Tony Alvarez:

Thank you very much for tonight, folks.

Craig Evans:

How do you follow that?

Tony Alvarez:

I was, you know, Peter is a very special person, because he's very aware of what he is, his intentions, of what he's setting out to do. And the truth of the matter is, there's a lot of us in this room right now that are, you know, we have we do things. We want to do things, but sometimes we're not as aware of our behavior, of our intention, of our wishes, of our the dreams that we really would like to fulfill. Some of us are even afraid to even have a wish or a dream, but that's when you start out, deciding what you want to do. You know, these go back to the same principles that really, Bruce made me look at, at a point in my, in my real estate career, after I had already done well and all that stuff, I was just working my butt off. That's all I did really, most of my working life in this business. And I realized that I, you have to ask yourself, 'What do I want to do and why?' And now, and you read about all these things. I reached these points in my life on my own, after I had, after Bruce asked me to speak about my"success" at the very first millionaire maker that he ever did. And I told him, 'Are you right of your mind? What am I going to stand up there and tell people, work your butt off?' Because that's all what I did. And he said, 'You sit down and you think about it, and you'll figure it out'. And I spent the weekend with a yellow pad and a pen, and I wrote down, "What did I do?" And it started with that I really understood what I wanted to accomplish and why I wanted to accomplish it. At that time, the only reason I had was a young wife and a young son. I got married young, and I have to tell you right now, and I always, no matter what room I'm in, I can always tell you I am the least educated, the least intelligent person in the room. I didn't even finish high school. I dropped out of my last month. That's how dumb I am, and you people are listening to me, so. Anyways, I went back to school at night when I realized the value of education. But at that time, you know, I just wanted up. I wanted to be financially free with I didn't even know what that was. At the time, I just didn't want to work for somebody else, like like Pete has said. You know, you'll find similarities if you listen carefully to the, to our lives and the things that we've accomplished and the things that we've run from, not only run towards. Glenn, decide what you want to do and know why you want to do it. And that's a very personal and private conversation you have with yourself, not because somebody else did it, not because someone else has been successful, this whatever. You have to know in your heart what that is, 'Why do I want it and why? What is the reason?' And you're going to you're going to find that those answers don't come so easily when they're honest. You might have an emotional response to it or whatever, but that is at the core of anyone succeeding at anything, whether it's real estate or whether it's some military guy going over the hill, you know, to take the hill that they told him he's got to take, and everybody around him is dying. The level of commitment you have to have to something. You have to really want it. We're talking about real estate,but we're really talking about much more than that. So I succeeded. I have no clue why I got to the level of success I had the financial. All I know is, is that I fell in love with the process. I fell in love with the people. I fell in love with what I was doing, because I realized I was doing something worthwhile. And in at the end of that day after day after day after day. Why would you go home? You know, my wife would say, 'It's seven o'clock, you should be home by now. We had dinner an hour ago'. I said,'Yeah, but I got to go see a guy because he's having a problem with his house', and I got to tell nobody is going to understand you. No one will understand what drives you. But you're going to have to know it yourself and your heart. You have to know why you're getting up every day, why you're fighting the dragon, why you're doing whatever it is. A lot of things have changed in this world, but succeeding at anything, achieving anything, it's still the same recipe, and it starts with you knowing what you want, why you want it, and be very clear about the level of commitment that you're making to achieving that thing.

Bruce Norris:

I'm going to encourage everybody to think about maybe the worst moment you've ever had, and think about how to use that as an inspiration. I got married, I assume I got fired from five jobs in a row. Went to work at a place called Clark hardware, which we were within two minutes of okay, and I had a bad attitude. And why the guy hired me, I don't know. He looked at my resume, fired from the last five jobs for every three months. He took me aside every day and chewed me out because I was working. So I had a bad attitude, and he changed my life one day. Took me aside. He said,'Bruce, I don't understand why you come to work every day and let your family down'. Did you see red? I saw red. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to hit him. I realized he's right. Well, pissed me off. 'Okay. said, Mr. Palmer, I'm going to work harder than you've ever seen anyone work before. Please make it worth my while'. I learned how to flip that switch or have that domino. I could do that now any second I want. There's actually a man here that most of you don't know, John Stevenson. He has, we have competed with each other in many things, but he was always the first one, and one day I used to sell him electrical stuff, and I came to his home and he said, 'Don't come to the home tomorrow or next week. I built a custom home, and I have an office too', and that flipped my switch. John Stevenson has a custom home. Guess how long it took me to buy a custom home lot? Noon the next day, I called John Stevenson up. I had written it down. I got to go get a custom home lot. I called John Stevenson up. I said, 'Do you know where Hawarden is?' He said, that's in the best part of Riverside where all the millionaires live. I said, 'That'll do it'. So hang around people that inspire you and get something that makes you click tip over domino that gets you to be the best you can be. I do that all the time. I know how to create that. It's so repetitive now, that whenever I need to borrow it, I can do it. And that's man, that's changed my life.

Craig Evans:

I remember growing up, my father told me, you know, he said, one of the best ways to learn is to learn what not to do, you know, instead of learning, Do this, do this, do this, learn from the things that I've taught you, what not to do. Learn from others around you what not to do. You know Bruce you, you helped 1000s of investors avoid market crashes, all kind of stuff. I want to switch. I want to go through the things for last little bit of time that we got before we bring everybody back up tonight. For you, what do you think the biggest mistake that you've made is and that you potentially see investors making now?

Bruce Norris:

The biggest mistake I made as an investor?

Craig Evans:

Correct, and maybe the biggest that you've made, and also, what is the biggest thing that you see investors doing now that did you believe is a mistake?

Bruce Norris:

Wow. Well, the biggest mistake I've made is sometimes we've done things where, mostly new homes, I mean, where we had projects that haven't worked. So you were, you were there with one of them. I'm solving one now. And in standing in front of that has actually been kind of one of those tip the domino things like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to solve this. So in a way, it's I've made it a positive, like the biggest challenges in my life, the two of them that I've had to deal with since I've dealt with Florida, has actually been my best moments, you know. So what was the part of the second question? I'm sorry.

Craig Evans:

If you're looking at the investing world now, what do you think some of the biggest mistakes are, one of the biggest mistakes in your mind that's being made currently that you're saying, 'Man, if this was mine, I would not be doing that'. While you're thinking, I recognize that's subjective, because everybody sees things to a different lens. So I'm not trying to say something's doing something wrong.

Bruce Norris:

Yeah.

Craig Evans:

But again, I'm basing this from you've helped so many people avoid disaster. You haven't always gotten it right. You just admitted it, right? But at the at the same time, if you know, if it's only Glenn that we help tonight, right? What is the one thing that you're looking at that the world says, 'Hey, this is the way to go'. And you want to scream from the mountaintop,'That ain't it!'.

Bruce Norris:

Well, I think part of it, we've already talked about, let's say you do have that interest rate reduction and thinking that this is all going to turn into a wonderful real estate market. I think that's a mistake. I think how you fix that is understanding how to buy where you can profit, in any market, you know, buying it at a big enough discount, or working with like Pete knows how to do the terms to where it all makes sense, monthly, that type of thing. So, I mean, I think that's what I would learn how to do. And now, I think that's a great story that you told that you've made 200 attempts and made the 201st one. That's pretty cool, but that's very rare, right? That's really rare. That's real life. I know put on your life, no?

Craig Evans:

But that's a grit you don't see in this world.

Bruce Norris:

To me, that's as good a lesson as there is

Craig Evans:

But here's the thing I want you all to know, tonight. and I hope you don't get mad at me about this. I'm having breakfast yesterday. If you do, I love you anyway, I'm having breakfast yesterday morning, and I look over and I see Bruce and Peter walking in to sit down and have breakfast, and I'm talking to him about what's going on. Bruce was learning from Peter about a scenario that he's trying to do now. So you know, the thing that I wants to say out of this, these guys are never too proud or arrogant to say, 'I know it all'. He's literally, here's the guy that's that, that Tony says, I've learned more than from this man than anything. And Bruce is like, I just need to learn from Peter, because he's got a tool that he knows how to do that I don't. I think that's a key thing that we miss right now so many in our days of social media. We all want to be the best, and we can be arrogant in that process. And I learned a lot yesterday watching you to sit down and you're willing to say, 'I don't know how to do this, but he does'. So, Peter, you've always valued freedom over security. You were just talking about that. How do you personally balance risk and reward in an uncertain market like now?

Pete Fortunato:

Okay, I'm not in an uncertain market like right now, I'm sitting there with a person who's got a situation that I can help with. My job is always to build allies. That's why I'm very comfortable sitting down with Bruce. That's why, when I went through my open heart surgery, I was calling and Tony was calling me because he'd been through it ahead of me. And those are the friendships that you build that enable you to get ahead. In the prior talk you had with the panel, they were talking about the sale of your home without paying the tax. I just went through this summer a young man whose house I was buying, I was buying the house so that he could buy another property from me, which was making an important deal for me. And I discovered that he was two months short of completing two years, which would have enabled him to use code section 121 to avoid the tax on the sale. So I stopped the sale, extended the sale, in order to be certain that when he sold that house to me, he didn't pay taxes on it, because I paid attention to those kinds of things, and he freaked out when I said, 'No, no, I don't want to close in June. We can't close until August'. And the title company, same thing. And I said, 'You don't understand, if he closes in June, he has not had two years since his prior 121, sale', and then they're talking about interest rates, and where interest rates going? Are they going up or down? I sat in McDonald's last week with a gentleman who's selling his house for a million dollars. I'm rounding that, and he's getting 100,000 cash, and he's carrying at 3% interest only for 10 years. Now he made that deal, he agreed to that he's talking about what a great deal it is from him, because it gives him income that his family is going to enjoy. And so I made him an offer. I said, I'll buy your house for a million dollars. I'll give you 100,000 cash, and I'll give you mortgages on four of my houses, so you got all kinds of security. And if he takes that, and I won't find out till I get back home, I'm going to sell his house for cash, thereby having borrowed 3% for 10 years in this market. But you made that happen. You didn't just sit there. Listen, isn't that interesting? Look what he's doing.

Bruce Norris:

Does your head hurt like mine does? You think this is normal?

Pete Fortunato:

Yes. Of course this is normal.

Craig Evans:

That's fantastic.

Pete Fortunato:

So I'm gonna pay off a 7% mortgage and a 6% mortgage and a 7 and a half percent mortgage. That's great refinance,

Craig Evans:

Yep. Wow. All right, so Joey's already monitoring me and telling me that we're running out and I got to bring everybody else up here in a minute, but I've got about. Four minutes left. Am I right there? Look at me. Get my eyes here. Should have borrowed Tony's glasses. So for, for, for all three of you, let's kind of dive through and what do you think is the single, you know, we talked about learning from our mistakes. What do you think is the single best decision that you've made in real estate, in your career?

Tony Alvarez:

I stopped listening my own BS, I'll break that down for you. The biggest concern that most people have, not just investors, but most people, is they worry about their fears. That's it. And that's the reason why we don't do the other thing, take action. So you asked a couple questions earlier that were really important. You know, what's the biggest mistake we've made? Or what's the biggest mistake we think other people make? I'd like to answer that that way. I think the biggest mistake anyone ever makes in their life, and we make them all the time, and we keep repeating it, no matter how much experience we have or whatever is that we listen to our fears and then we act accordingly. We are ruled by our fears to a certain extent. Now, some of us feel confident in certain areas that we're repeat actions that we take all the time. So we feel confident in those areas, but you take us out of that realm and we fall apart. We become kids in a corner somewhere, and we're afraid to speak. Sometimes we're afraid to meet new people. We're afraid. We're just afraid. And those are not even our own fears. They're just things that pop into our heads as a result of whatever. And it could be just conditioning or some movie you saw, God knows what. So the biggest, the biggest mistake, I think, that we make overall, in the biggest mistake that Tony has made in his life, is to believe in those fears just because they popped up in my head before I was going to make some decision. Now I want you to know the only reason I succeeded in real estate is because somehow and I have to say his name, Dave Deldado said on television at two o'clock in the morning when I was up desperate and unemployed. He said I clicked on the TV and he was in a white suit, in Hawaii, 'Any idiot can get wealthy in real estate. You don't need a high school diploma'. Remember what I said? Did that get my attention?'You don't need money'. I didn't have any. 'You don't need good credit'. My credit was horrible.'You don't need contacts or connections'. I didn't have any in the real estate business or anywhere else for that matter, and, 'You don't need prior experience'. So I believed in those five things immediately. And then the guy who was sitting next to him, who was called, I think, Joe the plumber or something, he was from Massachusetts, so he parked his car right, and he spoke. We grew up in Massachusetts, by the way, isn't this funny? I grew up in Lawrence, Peter Grove and Lowell, MA and there were sister cities. Their football teams used to fight each other all the time. You guys always beat us, though, I have to admit that. Okay, those five things. And then Joe the Plumber says, 'You know, I'm a plumber in Massachusetts'. Now, I knew a plumber in Massachusetts makes more money than God. And he said, 'I know, I know you guys think I make a lot, a lot of money, but I'm sick and tired of being on my knees and, you know, cleaning somebody's toilet in the middle of the winter. I listen to what Dave said and look' and he holds up a check for 12 grand. Now, the last job I had had back then paid me$1,000 a month. That was a year's worth of my salary, and he did that on his first deal. So the next thing was I was running to the phone to buy his course, which I got a couple of weeks later on a credit card that I didn't even know if it had the money on it. I never doubted any of it. Never I didn't have a doubt. I didn't have a fear, nothing until the first house I went to see, and the real estate agent came up and squeezed my arm on my shoulder, and I was looking at the house, and I realized, oh my god, this is real. He went, you better buy that house, because it's a great deal. By the way, that's how I realized in that moment I didn't know if it was a deal or not, and I had to listen to him, and if and if he if I bought the house, he would make money. If I didn't buy it, he wouldn't make any money. So could I listen to him? Could I really trust his judgment? So that is what I think is the biggest hurdle is, how do we deal with our fears over any decision that we want to make, right? But getting into real estate, you know, it's no small thing, right? But if you break it down, like Peter has explained, he doesn't look at the broad things in the big whatever and all of that he's looking at you, you, you whoever he's going to talk to, that's real. And then when he's talking numbers, he's talking about, he's figuring out what, what is it that? What's your problem? How can I help you solve it? And in that process, in that process, he becomes the most important person in that room, even though it is mine. You are. I don't know if I even answered your question. I apologize.

Craig Evans:

get on, and I don't want to shut that down, but I want to bring everybody up. And yes, you answered that. Because the thing that I wanted everybody to see out of this tonight with these three gentlemen, the way they made their wealth was not thinking about $1 bill. They made it about thinking about the other person, thinking about how do they act full of integrity. I appreciate you getting up here and bearing yourself, sharing your thoughts, being honest about that. It's not always about making $1 but how do you listen. We got we're here to make money.

Tony Alvarez:

Yeah, you gotta get paid.

Craig Evans:

You gotta get paid. If not doing that, you're for every one of you. It was not about how do you make it wasn't trying to get rich out of that, you're always thinking about someone else, and I appreciate that out of each of you teaching that.

Tony Alvarez:

Yeah, thank you.

Bruce Norris:

Where are we getting

Craig Evans:

We stay here. Oh, we take a picture. That means we got to get up.

Joey Romero:

Don't forget to visit isurvivedrealestate.com for tickets to the event on Friday, September 12. The Norris Group would like to thank the following Gold sponsors, Keystone CPA, The Inland Valleys Association of Realtors, Pasadena FIBI, The North San Diego Real Estate Investors Association, LA south REIA, NorCal REIA, The Wizard of the Wobbly Box, Andy Teasley, Shepherd's Finance, The Thompson Group, PropertyRadar and White House Catering. The dinner wine is provided with a generous contribution by Rick and Leanne Rossiter. Hope see you all there.

Narrator:

For more information on hard money loans, trust deed investing, and upcoming events with The Norris group. Check out thenorrisgroup.com. For more information on passive investing through the DBL Capital Real Estate Investment Fund, please visit dblapital.com.

Joey Romero:

The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE license 01219911. Florida mortgage lender license 1577 and NMLS license 1623669. For more information on hard money lending go to thenorrisgroup.com and click the hard money tab.