Henry Washington:
Five years ago, Martin Castro Silva was working at a bank making 80 grand a year. Not a bad gig, but one thing was eating at him. He was missing the moments with his two kids who were three and one years old at the time. It wasn’t until Martin picked up a pattern that everything changed. And that pattern was all his wealthy clients at the bank were in real estate and one of them was even willing to show him the ropes. Martin knocked his first deal out of the park and replaced half of his salary while working on the side. This had to be it. This was his ticket to freedom. By the second deal, he quit his job and by the third, he was building an income replacing machine. Just last year alone, Martin did 11 real estate deals. Nothing super creative, no sketchy financing, all using a repeatable formula that anyone can replicate.
Now he owns a schedule, he can dedicate time to his kids, and he put his wife and children into their dream home. And it only happened because he took the chance on his first deal. Today, Martin will show you how to do it too.
All right, Martin. Well, tell us about your background and what got you into real estate.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Well, I was hiring my second child. I wanted to be the owner of my time, and I was looking to do something that would give me the freedom to just be with my kids. Yeah. My background is in banking. I worked for Chase Bank for 12 years. I was working at a Fort Lauderdale office in South Florida, very affluent area. And I’ve noticed that there was a pattern of clients that the ones that were in real estate were the ones that were doing well off.

Henry Washington:
What kind of clients were you servicing?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes. I was a private client banker, so I was sitting with the big sharks.

Henry Washington:
Okay. So for those who don’t know, when you go to the bank, they have bankers for regular people, and then they have private banking. Some of these banks have a special branch or a special person you can go to and do private banking when you got the real dollars. So you’re saying you were helping the big shops?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Correct. Yes.

Henry Washington:
And you started to notice that a lot of the big shots were dealing in real estate.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Exactly. Yeah. They either own real estate, they were agents, wholesalers. They were somehow connected to real estate. So I met this guy, young guy. He was coming every week to do a wire transfer to close on house. And every time he would come, he would tell me the story. “I’m buying this house for this much. I’m going to paint it. I’m going to do very little stuff, spruce it up and resell it, make 20, 25,000. Remember, it was the pandemic time, like 2021. And I was like, ” What? How is this guy making $20,000 in a month, in two months? “I couldn’t believe it. So every time he would come, I would try to always help him and learn more about him.

Henry Washington:
Okay. So

Henry Washington:
You were using him kind of like a little mentor when he would come in there.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes.

Henry Washington:
And get some information.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes, yes. When we got a little closer and he introduced me to bigger packets, he’s like, ” Hey, listen to this podcast. It’s going to be good education, good information for you. Since you say you want to start in real estate or want to do something about it. “Interest rates were super low. I took advantage and refinanced my home, got some capital. And then I would just bug him,” Hey, when are you going to have a deal? When are you going to have a deal? When are you going to have a deal? “And then he introduced me to a wholesaling company, Dan South, and they were able to get me my first deal and help me with some financing too.

Henry Washington:
Okay. Well, tell us about that deal.What’d you buy? What’d you pay for it? What’d you do with it?

Martin Castro-Silva:
It was a town home in a city called Lake Worth.

Henry Washington:
How far was that from where you were?

Martin Castro-Silva:
45 minutes.

Henry Washington:
Okay, that’s not bad.

Martin Castro-Silva:
So I bought it. I didn’t have any money then. And my mom had just refinanced because she had a 5% interest rate and then the interest rate went down. She got a 2.5, 2.75. She got pulled some money. And I told my mom,” Hey, mom, I think we should get into real estate. This is what I’ve been hearing from other people. “I was trying to lure my mom into getting into real estate and trust me. So she’s like, ” Oh, but I don’t know. What if he doesn’t sell? “No, everything is selling right now. People are paying. People want bigger houses. So we got that town house and this is what happened. So we bought it in February of 2022. I was still working in the bank. We bought it for 200. It only needed about 25 to 30,000.

Henry Washington:
Did you pay cash or did you get a loan?

Martin Castro-Silva:
We paid 50% of it cash and 50% we got a loan. They gave us a hard money loan, interest only. And I started rehabbing it myself. I was hiring contractors here on the … Not contractors like handymans to do just the bathroom. We did the two bathrooms and we also did the kitchen. But the thing is, I was working, so I didn’t have the time. And I didn’t know that in this business you need to be fast. So it took me seven months to rehab it, just to do two bathrooms and a kitchen. That’s insane. Yeah. Yeah. So we were paying a thousand bucks on interest expense each month. When it was finally ready around August, we listed it. I found an agent that charged me very little commission because I was trying to save money, trying to make the most I could, but didn’t like the service that I got.

Henry Washington:
Of course, you get what you pay for.

Martin Castro-Silva:
You get what you pay for, right? Yeah. We listed it for 320. We ended up selling it for 310. They actually asked me for a concession or something like that. And I said, yes. When I shouldn’t have, I could have fought it a little bit more, but I didn’t know better. But even with all those hurdles, I was able at the end, like net, net, I was able to net $37,000.

Henry Washington:
Hey, that’s a win.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Exactly. Yeah. And even after taking so long, paying 7,000 in holding costs, I was like, what? Had I taken action faster, I would’ve made more money. But I was so surprised. And then that was the moment when I clicked and everything changed because I was like, if I make these two times, three times in a year, I’m going to already surpass my annual salary, so I need to do this more.

Henry Washington:
What were you making at the time at the bank?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Anywhere between 70 to 85,000 because I was a private client banker, so my salary was based on commission. I had a small base and then everything commissioned each month. You get what you sell.

Henry Washington:
So you made about, I don’t know, close to half your salary

Martin Castro-Silva:
On

Henry Washington:
That first deal.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah.

Henry Washington:
That’s the proof of concept. So it took you seven months to do that. So how long until you did your next deal?

Martin Castro-Silva:
I bought it a few months later, but I started working on it full-time, four months later.

Henry Washington:
Full-time. So you left your job in the middle of your second renovation?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Absolutely. And my goal was to replicate my salary the very first year. So I bought the first deal in February. I sold it in September. I bought my second deal. November, I remember because it was Thanksgiving time.

Henry Washington:
How did you find the second deal to buy?

Martin Castro-Silva:
The second deal. So interest rates were low. I also took advantage of refinancing my own house. So I went ahead and this guy that I was telling you about.

Henry Washington:
The wholesaler from the bank?

Martin Castro-Silva:
The whole seller. Yeah. He found me a deal and he introduced me to the second deal. But he told me the second deal was two hours north. But I was like, you know what? Let me just do it because the price point was more aligned toward my resources.

Henry Washington:
It was less expensive than where you were. Okay. So what’d you pay for that second one?

Martin Castro-Silva:
For that one, I paid 170.

Henry Washington:
Okay. And you said you took out a line of credit.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Correct.

Henry Washington:
Is that what you used to buy the second one?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes.

Henry Washington:
How did you convince your wife to let you spend your entire line of credit on buying a flip?

Martin Castro-Silva:
I showed them the profits of the other one. It’s like, I have a spreadsheet. Look, this is what we made. If you’re okay with it, let’s go for the next one. I don’t know the market, but we’ll find out. These are the numbers.

Henry Washington:
And she said yes.

Martin Castro-Silva:
She gave me the support. Yeah.

Henry Washington:
That had to feel awesome.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah.

Henry Washington:
All right. So you bought the second one for 170. Okay. How much work did it need?

Martin Castro-Silva:
It was the very first time that I bought a single family home hours. My niece were shaking. Oh my gosh. I was like, okay, this is a different monster because I had to do everything. I need to do floors, paint. The roof was already done, but I had to renovate closet doors, floors, paint the house, two bathrooms, a kitchen. I had budgeted $40,000. I ended up spending $50,000.

Henry Washington:
That’s not too bad.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah.

Henry Washington:
That’s not too bad. People go a whole lot more over budget than that typically on a first or second deal. So you got it done for 50. And what did you sell it for?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Oh, here’s a good lesson. I was coming from the south, right? Complete different market. People paying over asking a lot, 30, 40, 50,000 over asking for single family homes. And I was like, you know what? I’m going to price it high. I’m going to set the market. Oh, you got

Henry Washington:
Too big for your britches. You did your first deal and you

Martin Castro-Silva:
Thought, okay.

Henry Washington:
Okay. But did your agent agree with that or was your agent trying to list it

Martin Castro-Silva:
For us? No, they told me, “Hey, listen, the ARB in this market is going to be 300, 309 the most.” I was like, no, I’m going to listen to 325, 335. I’m going to get my price.

Henry Washington:
With all of your years of expertise,

Martin Castro-Silva:
You

Henry Washington:
Decided.

Martin Castro-Silva:
We went live. A week goes by, I got a cash offer, 300,000.

Henry Washington:
Which is what you originally planned on.

Martin Castro-Silva:
I turned it down.

Henry Washington:
No,

Martin Castro-Silva:
Martin. Yeah.

Henry Washington:
Martin,

Martin Castro-Silva:
Turned it down. I sat on the house for four months and asked me how much I sold it for.

Henry Washington:
What did you sell it for?

Martin Castro-Silva:
300,000.

Henry Washington:
And I bet it wasn’t cash.

Martin Castro-Silva:
It was not cash.

Henry Washington:
It was financing. Oh,

Martin Castro-Silva:
Man.

Henry Washington:
Four months to sell that. But you sold it for 300. So that means you made profit. How much did make?

Martin Castro-Silva:
I made about 35,000, 35,000 on that one.

Henry Washington:
Still a win. So at least you got paid to learn a lesson because some people lose money when they learn a lesson.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Correct.

Henry Washington:
All right. We’ve got more amazing story from our investor, Martin Castro Silva, right after the break. As a host, the last thing I want to do or have time for is to play accountant and banker. But that’s what I was doing every weekend, flipping between a bunch of apps, bank statements and receipts, trying to sort it all out by property and figure out if I was actually making any money. Then I found Baseline and it takes all of that off my plate. It’s BiggerPockets official banking platform that automatically sorts my transactions, matches receipts, and shows me my actual cashflow for every property. My tax prep is done and my weekends are mine again. Plus, I’m saving a ton of money on banking fees and apps I don’t need anymore. Get $100 bonus when you sign up today at baselane.com/bp. BiggerPockets Pro members also get a free upgrade to Baselane Smart.
That’s packed with advanced automations and features to save you even more time. All right. We are back with investor Martin learning about his journey to becoming a full-time real estate investor. Let’s jump back into it.

Martin Castro-Silva:
When I was close to finish that one deal, the one, the first single family home, the same wholesaler reached out and presented me another deal, 30 minutes north. He was selling it to me a little bit cheaper than the first one, but I just didn’t have the money because I had used my money to buy that deal. So I found a private lender, just another client from the bank.

Henry Washington:
Look at you using their resources.

Martin Castro-Silva:
And he gave me a hard money loan. He’s an agent. So I remember telling him, “Hey, listen, if you give me the money, you get to lease this deal.” He’s like, “Let’s do it. ” Yeah. So he lent me 150,000 using the first house, the first single family house as a collateral. And then I used that money to buy the second one. The wholesaler had presented it.

Henry Washington:
Ah, so you took a line of credit out. You cross-collateralized that first asset. Oh, okay. Okay.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Exactly.

Henry Washington:
I like it.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah. I

Henry Washington:
Like it. Was it the same size renovation or was it a bigger-

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah, same by box. A little bit more. It was like 45, close to 50,000. Same square footage, three bedroom, two bath. He needed everything. He needed a roof. He needed floors, paint, kitchen, bathrooms, everything. Full cut job. He gave me the money. I bought it and then I learned my lesson, price it right. So I priced it at 299, the second single family home in Sebastian, and I got it under contract in six hours.

Henry Washington:
That’s what I’m talking about. Lesson learned. Lesson learned. So you made the same amount, but you made it a whole lot faster this time.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Correct. Correct. Yeah, I believe I closed those two deals in the same week.

Henry Washington:
And so at this point, you were full-time in real estate. So you had left your job. That had to be scary though. I understand that you wanted to move faster, but just leaving your job, that’s a big step. What gave you that confidence? I

Martin Castro-Silva:
Just didn’t want to miss any of the moments with my kids. Back then, I had a three-year-old and a one-year-old, a newborn. Oh man. And I just took a leap of faith. I talked a lot with my wife. I was like, “Hey, listen, worst case scenario, I can always come back to corporate.” But I want to do something that fulfills me, that gives me motivation because I had lost a little bit of the passion that I had for banking and all those years. I just wanted to change.

Henry Washington:
All right, Martin, these are incredible lessons to learn in your first couple of deals. And how cool to get paid for your first couple lessons. I’m very interested to learn what it was like going off on your own now as a full-time investor who had some experience. So where did you go after your third deal?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Well, one thing that I learned from bigger packets is that you got to let everyone know you’re an investor. So I was talking to everyone, the line, Walmart, anywhere. Anywhere I go, it’s like- Anybody

Henry Washington:
Who’d listen, huh?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Exactly. Hey, I buy houses. I can buy them cash now that I have a little bit of experience how to finance them or how to get them. So I talked to a neighbor of one of my projects because I’ve noticed his property was very distressed. The loan was super high. This

Henry Washington:
Was a neighbor from that first single family home? Same

Martin Castro-Silva:
Street, right next to it. Oh,

Henry Washington:
It was next door.

Martin Castro-Silva:
It was the

Henry Washington:
Literal neighbor.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes, yes. And I told him, “If you ever want to sell your home, let me know. I may be able to help you. ” I either buy it myself or find you a buyer. I come from the south, so I know a lot of people trying to move. So it’s like, “Oh, you know what? I do want to sell it, but I’m not ready yet.” Okay. So we exchanged numbers and that was it. When I was almost done, ready to close on that house. The

Henry Washington:
Sale?

Martin Castro-Silva:
The sale. Yeah. He called me up and I bought that house for $150,000, which was $20,000 cheaper than what the wholesaler had sold me that very first.

Henry Washington:
Was it the same size house? It

Martin Castro-Silva:
Even has one more room. It was a four-two.

Henry Washington:
Oh, okay. Okay. How about how much work? Did it need more work? Yeah,

Martin Castro-Silva:
It needed a little bit more work, but still the budget was about 55, 50 to 60,000.

Henry Washington:
Hey, that works out. This is something I learned this from, I think it was Domar Cross who flips. He flips on a TV show out in Florida actually in Tampa.

Martin Castro-Silva:
But

Henry Washington:
He would always put a sign up in the yard of the houses he was renovating that said, “This project is being renovated by…” And it’d have his LLC and the phone number so that the neighbors knew. And he said he would buy deals like that. The neighbors would call him. And so we started doing that. So I’ve done deals where we’ve bought and done multiple houses on the same street just by letting people know. And it’s also just good business to let your neighbors know what you’re doing because they’ll keep an eye on your house for you and make sure. They’ll be like, “Hey, nobody’s been at your house in a couple of days.” Or they’ll tell you, “Hey, there was somebody creeping, peeking in the windows.” It’s just good, good to have the neighbors working for you. So you bought that neighbor’s house. How did you finance that one?
Did you use the line of credit or did you do a traditional bank?

Martin Castro-Silva:
No, this time I partnered up with my siblings. It was almost the end of the pandemic era and they had seen my results. So they made a profit on the sale of their homes and then we partnered up, the three of us. So we bought that house cash. We put the money into it and we made a home rent. We probably made like $65,000.

Henry Washington:
Oh, nice, man. So did you split it all evenly between the three of you?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes.

Henry Washington:
That’s so cool that you were able to bring your family into it.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah.

Henry Washington:
So tell me what the sale price was.

Martin Castro-Silva:
We sold that house for 320,000.

Henry Washington:
Okay. So this was 2023?

Martin Castro-Silva:
2023.

Henry Washington:
Here’s what’s cool about this story is you never took no for an answer. If you didn’t have the money, you figured out a way to get the money. You weren’t afraid to talk to your friends and family. And I think all of that stems from a couple of things. A, you have a very strong belief in yourself and your ability to hustle and get things done, but it sounds like you also have a great family structure at home where your wife supported you in everything that you’re doing and you had great motivation in wanting to be able to spend time with your children. And I think that’s the formula. The formula is obviously you need to be able to find good deals, but the real formula is you have a strong reason why and you don’t take no for an answer. I think too many times investors tell themselves no.
They say, “Oh, I would do that deal, but my credit’s not in the right place.” Or, “But I’m not quite sure where I’m going to find the money.” And they let the buts and the nos stop them. And I think a lot of that is because there’s fear. And that fear is either fear of failure. They don’t want to fail or let people down. But I think a lot of the time too, it’s like fear of success. What happens if it works? I got to keep doing this. I think that your belief in yourself and your foundation is really what helps set you up because it just sounds like if you run into a wall, you would just go talk to somebody and figure out how they were doing it and then you would try to replicate it. And sometimes it’s that simple. It’s just surround yourself with people who are doing it and figure out how they’re doing it because I promise you guys, you’re going to run into a brick wall.
I’ve done hundreds of deals and I still run into brick walls all the time, but you’ve got to figure out a way to get through it. When I got started, my very first deal, I ran into a brick wall. I told my fuddy I was going to buy his house and then I couldn’t find the money. And I called my buddy who’s an investor and I said, “Hey, can you buy this deal because I told my friend I would and now I can’t buy it. ” And he told me the same thing. He said, “Henry, yeah, I’ll buy that deal. It’s a good deal. But if you’re going to be in this business, you need to go figure it out. ” And that’s the best part about real estate is there’s a way you can piece a deal together. You just got to be able to do it safely.
And so man, it’s such a cool, such a cool, cool story. All right. We’ve got more amazing story from our investor, Martin Castro Silva, right after the break. All right, we are back with investor Martin learning about his journey to becoming a full-time real estate investor. Let’s jump back into it. So here we are in just the beginning of 2026. What does your business look like now? How many deals are you doing in a year?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Well, I had a really good 2025. I bought 11 properties.

Henry Washington:
Okay.

Martin Castro-Silva:
I was able to flip, bought and sold seven.

Henry Washington:
Awesome. So you bought 11 properties in 2025. I have so many questions. So first and foremost, are you keeping any or do you just fix and flip only?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah, I have two doors. I kept two single family homes, but I mostly flipped.

Henry Washington:
Okay. And what’s your buy box look like? Because 11 deals, you got to have it pretty dialed in. What are you buying?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah, I focus mostly on single family homes, 1,200 square feet, three tools. Sometimes I have to do the two-twos if the square footage allows me to add another room, price point, purchase price, anywhere between 150 to 220 and resale value below 350.

Henry Washington:
Okay. So you like that first time home buyer product? Absolutely. I do the same thing. It’s the same. It just helps you stay safe in an uncertain market because in that price point, if something doesn’t work out, you can probably throw a tenant in it and at least break even. Maybe it costs you a little bit of money, but it’s way better than having to pay those hard money fees

Martin Castro-Silva:
On

Henry Washington:
A property you can’t sell. I love that. And in what market?

Martin Castro-Silva:
I only invest in my city, Vero Beach and Sebastian.

Henry Washington:
So did you move to Vero Beach? Because you weren’t in Vero Beach when you first started.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yeah. After the same.

Henry Washington:
Wait, wait, wait. Did you move to Vero Beach because of those deals and the price points? That’s awesome.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Herry, I bought the first single family home. I bought the second one, and then I bought the third one. I was like, “I’m getting my deals here. This is the price point. This is what I can afford to do. ” Yeah. That’s why. Yeah. And I told my wife, “Hey, listen, we have a very nice house in Fort Lauderdale, but the drive and I didn’t want to be far from my family, so it’s like it’s time to move.”

Henry Washington:
So you moved to Vero Beach and now that’s where you mainly operate out of.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes.

Henry Washington:
I really love that. More affordable too. And so you’re probably able to get yourself a little more house, a little more bang for your buck.

Martin Castro-Silva:
I did. Thank God, yes. I was able to sell my house. I sold my house in 2024, early 2024, able to get on the last wave where prices were high. So I was able to solve that when I’m buying a house here.

Henry Washington:
I love this story, Martin, because of all the hustle that you’ve put in, but one of the best parts about real estate is some of the benefit it allows for us. A, you use real estate to switch markets and live in a more affordable market. Has real estate provided you any other cool benefits? Hat’s a story you could tell us about something cool maybe you’ve done with some of your property?

Martin Castro-Silva:
One time I was just leaving my house, going to work, going to a job site, to a project. And my neighbor, I mean, remember I told everybody that I know I’m an investor and I buy houses. So I was leaving my house and my neighbor waves at me like this. And she stopped me. I was like, “Hey, how are you? What happened?” “I’m selling my house. “I was like, ” Stop. Let me … “I stopped. I pulled up, walked the house with her. She told me what she wanted. I think it was a fair price. And I quickly called my sister-in-law because I knew she was looking for a house. Down south, houses are more expensive so they could get more house for the money over here. So I called her up. I told her,” Hey, listen, you got to come up and you got to see this house because my neighbor is selling and I want you to be my neighbor.
“So she came up and we were able to lock this house up and put under contract and then she got a deal, no commissions, no nothing. So real estate has given me the tools to also help my family members.

Henry Washington:
Oh man, that’s cool. So now you’ve created your own little community over there in Vero Beach. I love this story, man. It’s just a great story about how someone can use real estate to provide them more freedom. Look, obviously you quit your job and you use real estate to do that, but let’s not sugarcoat this. You’ve replaced one job with another. Flipping houses is a job. If you stop flipping houses, you stop making money. So we’re not saying that you retired from real estate, but it has changed your family’s future. It’s changed your future. And when you set out you wanted to be able to spend more time with your kids, have you been able to accomplish that goal?

Martin Castro-Silva:
Yes, I have. I now have a crew that I work with. They’re the ones that take care of the remodeling, the rehab of the projects. And this year in particular, I stopped working weekends. Saturday and Sanders are for just a family. We do family activities and we try to spend as much time together as possible because time flies.

Henry Washington:
Time does fly. My kids are growing up so fast, but it’s so cool. And me too. I left corporate, but I flip houses. So I have a job as well. But the best part is I make my own hours. If I want to take a day off, no one’s going to die. Exactly.
The houses will still get worked on. It’ll be fine. Maybe something won’t go as smoothly as I want it to because I don’t have all the perfect systems in place, but no one’s dying. You get to make your own schedule. And I can spend that time that I choose to spend with my family. And it’s cool to see that you’re doing something similar. And so before we get out of here, Martin, I want you to reach out to some of the people who are maybe in the same boat as you, who have a job, they don’t have the passion for their job anymore. They’d love to replace it with real estate, but it’s scary. It’s scary right now. So are there any lessons you want to share with them or just any words of wisdom you can give people who are seeing this and wanting to do what you did?

Martin Castro-Silva:
I love to answer that, but do you mind if I do it in Spanish for the Spanish areas?

Henry Washington:
Oh, I would love that. That’s awesome. Thank you.

Martin Castro-Silva:
Absolute dehenry.

Henry Washington:
I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing those words of wisdom. There are a lot of people out there who in a very similar position to you who maybe just need that little push. And I love that you were able to do that and you were able to share your experience. One of the best things I love about Martin is Martin’s just a good dude. He’s just a good dude. And this business needs more good people. So thank you so much, Martin, for coming on the BiggerPockets Podcast and sharing your story. I wish you the best as you continue to grow and expand your business in 2026. And thank you everybody for listening to the BiggerPockets Podcast. And also, if you learn something from Martin’s story, I want you to check out episode 1231 from January 26th with investor Neil Whitney.
Neil is another inspiring example of how even basic affordable real estate investing can change your entire financial future. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast. We’ll see you on the next episode.