Why Passion Wins | Barbara Isabel

About the Episode 

Real estate isn’t just flashy homes and HGTV-style glam. It’s war. And most people don’t make it. But today, I’m talking with someone who’s not only survived it—she’s dominated it. My guest is Barbara Isabelle, a powerhouse developer and real estate expert based in none other than Beverly Hills.

Barbara moved from Spain, left a law career behind, and in just five years built a thriving real estate group, her own land consulting firm, and is now launching a $20 million investment fund. We talk about how she made it in one of the most competitive cities in the world, what real estate really looks like behind the scenes, and how she’s creating affordable housing solutions while building real wealth. If you want the truth about real estate, money, and what it really takes to grow something massive, you need to hear this story. Barbara doesn’t play small—and she doesn’t want you to either.

 

About Barbara:  

Barbara Isabel, a true real estate maven hailing from Spain, has a story that’s nothing short of captivating. With a childhood spent absorbing the art of real estate development from her father, Barbara embarked on a journey that led her from the halls of ICADE’s prestigious School of Law to a coveted position at a global law firm. Her thirst for knowledge then took her to Malibu, where she earned a Master’s degree in Law with a specialization in Alternative Dispute Settlement at Pepperdine. Today, as a multifamily real estate expert with The Agency Beverly Hills, Barbara’s reputation for personability, unwavering honesty, and exceptional negotiation skills precedes her. Beyond her thriving career, she’s a West Hollywood enthusiast and a dedicated member of the LA community, making her the ideal resource to start your remarkable journey and gain valuable insights into the world of real estate.

 

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Rick Jordan  

What’s shaking? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. Today, this is going to be a blast because real estate is always up and down. People think that they can make a lot of money from it. And I’ve known many, many agents who have gotten into the business and have just sucked. They just had, they never made any money. Or a lot of people do it as a side hustle. But this is truly an awesome story today from someone who has really built a lot of wealth, a lot of good names for herself, and has her own agency. It’s awesome. So I am welcoming Barbara Isabel to the show. What’s shaken?

 

Barbara Isabel  

Hey guys, how are you? 

 

Rick Jordan  

Oh my gosh. I’m so excited to have you on because you have your own group, right? That’s part of Keller Williams. You have your own group, and it’s, of all places, Beverly Hills, which is pretty awesome to begin with.

 

Barbara Isabel  

It’s a good brand to have. I could have chosen any office, but I just think it shows better.

 

Rick Jordan  

Oh, for sure. I mean, everybody equates Beverly Hills with like, the rich and famous, right?

 

Barbara Isabel  

Yeah, it’s like they like the dream for everybody to be and live in Beverly Hills. It’s, you know, it’s far from the truth. Like, you know, there’s a lot of things to like and a lot of things to hate about Beverly Hills, and I guess, every other city, but if I were going to join any office, it had to have the Beverly Hills on it, because that’s kind of a little bit of a hybrid for my business. So, you know, even though I specialize, as I’m sure we will discuss, in land, multi-family, affordable housing, and mainly, like, ground-up development, that doesn’t happen at all in the city of Beverly Hills, yeah, it’s also a very good hybrid to have. You know, the Beverly Hills zip code on my resume, because it obviously gives me a lot of, like, good referrals.

 

Rick Jordan  

For sure, it does, no doubt, you know. And what’s interesting is, you mentioned something in there, and I know we were talking a little pre-show that you’re going to talk to the community at an event. I think it’s the Chamber of Commerce event. Is that what you said? It’s the town hall, the town hall, that’s it cool. And it’s, it’s interesting. It’s, it’s a big dichotomy, you know, because you’re in Beverly Hills, and yet you’re going to go there and talk about multi-family affordable housing, which is pretty interesting.

 

Barbara Isabel  

If you’ve been around in real estate, again, I haven’t been running real estate that long, even though I grew up in the business. My dad was a developer in Spain. My dad never even made it to the States. He never traveled to the States when I was, you know, a few years ago. I don’t need to say how old I was back then. I’m getting, I’m getting to that space of my life when I, when I moved here. I moved to LA to do my master’s degree. I went to law school, and I went to Pepperdine. And that’s my background. That’s, you know, what I thought I wanted to do. That was like what my dad always wanted me to do. I was, you know, raised very conservatively, and, you know, little did I know that I wasn’t going to end up doing real estate, which, to me, the concept I had of real estate, especially here in LA, was like the reality TV shows. And I was like, that’s for me, you know, it’s like, too much exposure, too much going on, like, you know, I didn’t feel I had the personality for it, until I realized that everything was really bullshit. It wasn’t like, you know, it wasn’t, it wasn’t what they show.

 

Rick Jordan  

Oh, for sure, it’s a lot of masks. It’s a lot of, you know, playing life, so to speak, that you probably found, right? And that’s a complete contrast to what’s actually going on.

 

Barbara Isabel  

There’s a saying that I’m sure applies probably to every other state, but there’s a saying that goes, you know, 5% of agents do 90% of their business. I could probably say 3% of agents do 95% of the business.

 

Rick Jordan  

Wow, that’s so interesting. Yeah, because I mean, today’s your birthday, I won’t say how old you are, even though you look a lot younger than what you actually are. It’s so cool because you say you haven’t been in real estate really long, but yet you have your own group already, yeah, which is quite an accomplishment. That’s fantastic.

 

Barbara Isabel  

When I first started, like in real estate, about five and a half years ago, I, you know, was cold calling. I had a strong accent. I looked very young when I would go to my listing appointments. I always closed every single listing appointment I had throughout my first two years in real estate. And I was competing against big agents.

 

Rick Jordan  

How did you do that? How did you close every appointment?

 

Barbara Isabel  

I think they saw through me. Okay, there is something also, I would say there is something a little bit cultural. You know, I’m from Spain, and the way I was raised, I’m just very genuine and passionate about everything I do. And I think they saw the passion in me. I wasn’t just doing it to see what is going like after, you know, dedicating my life and eight years of my life, especially at that point, to law, it was a big change for me, so I just needed it. Just needed to make up for it. You know, when I told my parents I was transitioning to real estate, I mean, it was terrible. They were like, What do you mean? Like, what are you saying? And I was like, Well, I think I can make it. I said, and I love that the flow is extremely helpful for my career. But there’s, there’s a ceiling, there’s a cap as to what I can make doing this, like, I get paid hourly. I get paid a certain way that, you know, it’s not going to allow me to, like, get to where I want to be. And my goal was always to be honest my I’m, you know, I don’t need to be super rich. I hope I get there, and I think I will. But my goal has always been to just live well, believe that the way I was raised, this. The way I was raised. So, you know, until I moved to Italy, I never looked at prices in restaurants. You know, my parents wanted to travel. You know, everything in Europe is really close. So, you know, we went overseas five times a year. Like to me, that was life, and that’s just what I want to do. But right now, life is way more expensive than it was back then. So you just had to make up for all those things if you want to live the same lifestyle.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, you can see your passion coming on. I love what you said a little bit ago, when you said, you know, you saw the limitations with being a lawyer. You know, at least that whatever specific type of law you were billing for time, right? Because time is a limited commodity. But now, I mean, I love it that you have your own group, because you figured out how to amplify your time. You know, when

 

Barbara Isabel  

I said, when I got into real estate, I started cold calling, and got a few leads, you know, trying to sell some multi-million dollar houses like everybody else you know does. And then I found a common pattern, which was every single client who had over a three to $5 million. I’m not even going into the, you know, 1015, $20 million range, which is right away, very common in LA, even in that at that price point, they all, all of them owned apartment complexes, some of them 20 units, some of them 30 units, some of them were working on, you know, couple projects. And I was like, Okay, why are you doing this? Like, what is the benefit of investing in multifamily real estate? Then I learned about depreciation. Then I learned about, you know, the cash flow, what it refinances. I learned about all these beautiful things on top of the is pretty, you know, standard appreciation we get in LA, in real estate. And I was like, Wait a second, so you can buy a property that will allow you to depreciate over 27 years. Okay, so that means that some of the money that I make is tax free, which, of course, you know, we can get into detail if you want to, but all the benefits that come with investing in multifamily real estate, which, by the way, this is not something that I just like dig into, like, this is something that I think, like, if you’re curious enough to know how you can legally save money on your taxes.

 

Rick Jordan  

For sure, yeah, it’s never, it’s tax is never about paying nothing. Taxation is never about paying nothing. It’s about paying the little as possible that you actually legally owe, not overpaying, not overpaying, you got it.

 

Barbara Isabel  

And obviously not to get political, because I don’t discuss politics, you know, I want to, obviously, just talk strictly about my business, what I do, and, you know who I am.

 

Rick Jordan  

Especially California. California has no real political,

 

Barbara Isabel  

 I was gonna say, like, like, a lot of people say, like, oh, like, Trump does this. He does that. He doesn’t pay taxes. He’s not stealing money from anybody. Like, the way he’s doing it is he owns apartment complexes, 50 of them in every city, so with a huge depreciation, he gets through that he can leave tax-free for him, the next, the ones coming after him, and the five generations after those. Yeah, it’s a very smart business plan. It’s, you know, it’s, and again, it’s nothing like it’s not a secret for sure, you know, I mean, so, so that was something that always caught my attention. And eventually I feel that the logical path, if you go from, you know, trying to sell multi-million dollar houses, they’re learning about multifamily, you learn about depreciation, and you obviously don’t want to buy retail most of the time. It would be better not to have to pay, you know, three and a half million for something. But what if you, you know, get into the deal afro? What if you like, you know, partner with us, or, you know, with some of my clients, that’s what I did, and you get in from the beginning. So, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s the way it works out better, I think, over time. But that’s really, is this a benefit?

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I’ve looked at the tax code before, and I’ve read things with the tax code specifically that it’s, you know, two pages of the tax code are the taxes that you owe, you know what I mean, and then it’s like, the entire, like, rest of it, which is like 170 something pages are how not to pay those taxes. I heard about that, and it’s so true, because it’s like what you’re talking about with Trump. It doesn’t matter about politics whatsoever. Not one bit. You know, it’s just, it’s business plans, and then you can reinvest things. And it’s really cool, because a lot of the multifamily affordable housing, you’re actually doing a good thing for people, too. While you’re benefiting as a businesswoman, you’re doing a good thing by providing affordable housing to a lot of other people who might not generally get it. Instead, we

 

Barbara Isabel  

have a term here that I don’t even think is a popular term whatsoever, yeah. So you know, in case like, you know, this is, this is how we call it, meaning me, my partner, and the clients that I work with, the Affordable Housing world is called Impact investing. So that’s what we’re doing. That’s awesome. So, yeah, are we making money? Yes, absolutely. Otherwise, we wouldn’t do it. You know, we are not a nonprofit organization. And there are nonprofit organizations out there. We’re just not one of those. Yeah, you know, we want to provide a service. We want to especially here in the city of LA, we have a huge problem with housing, and the homeless situation is completely out of control. You know, I don’t know what the new show or don’t show, because I don’t really watch the news that often, but the situation with the homeless is faster anywhere.

 

Rick Jordan  

So, yeah, San Francisco, both of those two cities in California,

 

Barbara Isabel  

I think it’s even worse. I think it’s even worse. But like, here, I mean, it’s, and we’re paying like, you know, a million dollars for pieces of dirt that are just like, so. Rounded by app waste. And you know, it’s just, it’s really crazy. But again, if it makes money, it makes sense.

 

Rick Jordan  

So yeah, for sure, that’s so cool. How long did it take you from getting into real estate to having your own group? Five years. That’s, ‘s fast, that’s really quick. 

 

Barbara Isabel  

Five years, right? Five years. So, 2018 2018 and I got my group in December of 23. So, yeah, like, I would say it was the summer of 2018 that I started doing real estate, and I got in on December 23, so about five, just over five years.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s really, really quick. Congratulations, by the way. That’s fantastic, I bet. Yeah, well, you’re your own boss. You know, there’s you also help a lot of other people by doing it. Let’s talk about the event a little bit. Is that cool? It’s absolutely that you were invited to talk about this event, you know, which is tonight. You know about multifamily, affordable housing. Why did the town, why did the community invite you to speak about this? Why is it such a priority for him?

 

Barbara Isabel  

Well, I think my story is good overall. Like, if you look at my background, you know, where I come from, they obviously ask me a lot of questions. You know, I’m relatively young, you know, I have a very strong accent, but, you know, I made it in the city of LA, but yes, really being passionate about what I do.

 

Rick Jordan  

I’m 44, and I’m young. You’re a relative, you are young.

 

Barbara Isabel  

The fairies’ crisis. I don’t know if there’s such a thing, but just making you laugh.

 

Rick Jordan  

I’m just making it up. You think it is, yes 

 

Barbara Isabel  

But I think that, you know, I’m, I’m not really, I don’t really do any marketing. I don’t know if you guys have had a chance to, you know, look at my Instagram, look at my website. Like, I don’t really, like, you know, spend any time on social media, very little to none. But I think the numbers speak for themselves. Like, the more you encounter, like, as I said, you know, very few people in this business actually the business. And if you encounter somebody multiple times, I think that’s something that, you know, people appreciate. They start to, like, give you credibility. And you know, they’re like, Oh, okay. So you know, even though she looks this way, she looks young, and she’s next, and then you can tell she wasn’t raised here, even though all of that, like she’s actually doing business. So, you know, to close, I don’t know what I chose today, maybe 100 deals. Possibly, I would say maybe somewhere between 75 and 100, I’m not sure. Yeah, that’s incredible. Somewhere around there, yeah, yeah, in the city of LA, which is extremely competitive. Okay, so she’s been through quite a few transactions. Yeah, that’s a result of that. They look at my background again. I am not the agent selling, you know, two $40 million houses a year and then 80 million a year on sales. But they look at my numbers, and I do a lot of volume, you know. So my sales are anywhere from like, you know, 500,000 to, like, two and a half, most of them, that’s, I would say, like, the sweetest spot, but just a lot of them, yeah. So I think that they were, like, curious to know, you know, how did I get to where I’m at today? How can I inspire other people to get involved in what I’m doing? And Beverly Hills, at the end of the day, they really like taking care of their community, but also they like, you know, people who make money, yeah, yeah, you know. So I think, if you know, they know that what I’m doing makes money. So I think they also want to learn about it and be a little, you know, pick my brain for sure, to see how easy that they can get involved, or maybe take part in it, yeah?

 

Rick Jordan  

Well, that is a lot of transactions for just one day. That’s a lot of transactions for one day. You talk about volume. I think that’s an understatement. 

 

Barbara Isabel  

I think that’s the number of transactions that I’ve done since, since I started, like five and a half, five and a half years ago now.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, that’s fantastic. You’ve got to have a pretty good-sized team, too. But I think most importantly, you probably have this systematized at this point.

 

Barbara Isabel  

I didn’t have a system or, sorry, I didn’t have a team until three months ago? Yeah. So free, December 25 it was me, myself, and I.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yep, but you had a system.

 

Barbara Isabel  

Absolutely, I was like, I had a girl that I tried to, like, work with, but basically what I would do is I have a transaction coordinator, which is someone that handles the paperwork in the transactions, and I will pay her double her fee in every transaction, yes, to, like, make sure that she went the extra mile on all of my files. Does it? That’s fantastic. You know what I mean? If I send her all my clients’ information, just have them deal with it, DocuSign this and that, obviously, she always sends me the paperwork first, so I can approve it before she sends it out. Yeah, that’s what I did. That was saying. And then, you know, I think the most transactions I had in Eternal 11, that’s awesome. Yeah, yeah, that’s fantastic. I was like, Okay, I need some competent people, which is very difficult to find, almost impossible.

 

Rick Jordan  

Almost sounds like you’ve been through some bad ones; a little bit, we all have.

 

Barbara Isabel  

I tried like six different people last year. Wow. Yeah, and it’s difficult because they think, okay, you know, they think that you’re going to hand them the business and that they’re going to start making money, like, three weeks later. You know, if anyone had given me the opportunity I’m giving any of these mentees, yeah? I mean, I would have thought that would have made my life so much easier. I would have accomplished what I’m at, like, way faster. Yeah, I just didn’t have anybody.

 

Rick Jordan  

I like how you call them mentees also, because they’re not just employees, right? They’re coming underneath you.

 

Barbara Isabel  

Opportunity for growth. They don’t just get paid. Well, they get paid. I give them bonuses. If I close the deal, they make money. Too nice, and it’s a very fair split, something that nobody really offers. Yeah. And my goal is, listen, if I make them happy, they will make me money. And eventually, if they want to fly solo, they will fly solo. There is really no competition with what I do. I, you know, I’m a very, I’m really a land expert consultant, you know, specializing in expediting stuff with the city of LA and the housing department. I have great relationships with them that I built throughout the years. There’s no way to compete with that. At the end of the day, like, I call the housing department, and I’m like, Listen, this process is taking them literally about 16 to 18 weeks. I can get it done in five weeks. There’s no one that can do that because they know how I operate, for sure. That’s the value that I provide to these developers that I work with. So as a result of that, I also opened another company last year, when I was doing basically land consulting, and I’m just helping expedite all city paperwork for anyone who wants to, you know, choose my services. So So I signed like my fourth client, like two weeks ago. It’s nice that it’s all cash flow.

 

Rick Jordan  

For sure. I have a question regarding your mentees when you bring them on, right? Because it’s, it’s only been a few months, I guess that you have some kind of speech that you give to them, you know, ahead of time, because it’s you’ve gone through some bad people. So how do you frame it up for them to be like, Hey, this is what it’s going to be like with me.

 

Barbara Isabel  

I say very simple. You want to work and make money. You are going to make money, but you have to work. It’s not just going to come to you. Now, if I see consistency, and if you follow what I’m telling you to do, and if you do what I’m asking you to do, you will be making money in less than two months. Like, not just what you’re making, you will get a bonus in less than two months. Because some of the stuff that we buy, we don’t only do affordable and multi-family, we do a lot of flipping. That’s how we, you know, pay our payroll. So, you know, flip side, we can close in 1014, days are all cash transactions. Transactions. Those are races. So, you know, if I close a deal and I make 1000, I will give them a third, I will give them 2500, whatever it is, yeah, like, it’s not for me. It’s not about like, listen, if I have someone who, like, really wants to learn, like, I want to teach them, like, I’m excited to teach people.

 

Rick Jordan  

I love that. That’s awesome.

 

Barbara Isabel  

People feel like, Oh, there’s no competition with what I do. They don’t know the people the way. I do know what I mean. And I had somebody that I was teaching last year decided to try to go solo and and she actually closed one deal with one of my, you know, one of my many clients. Let’s play that way. What they were, they weren’t exclusive to me. I said, Okay, no problem. I said, Now you, you want me to know I got it. I got it. Problems arose after they closed the transaction, which I could have said, you know, because he didn’t have the expertise that I had. And they came running to me both. That’s so cool. And I say, Listen, I said, I will help you as much as I can help you, I said, but I want X amount of money. That’s what I want, right?

 

Rick Jordan  

Oh, it’s the reverse right, it’s only fair. Yeah, you give that. You give them

 

Barbara Isabel  

I did it in the past without asking for anything, hoping that, hey, listen, I’m getting you out of this mess. But then you realize that people really listen, and everything works both ways. It cannot work one way. And I have been given opportunities to do it that way and then receive nothing. So I’m not doing that anymore. I used to be, I used to be a lot more naive, you know, a lot nicer, like, all this now there is no, like, halfway for me, like we’re talking about something. First of all, my work means everything to me. Yeah, and if I say something, I mean it. And then if that’s not good enough, we’re putting it in writing, you don’t want to sign it, then I don’t have a reason to. There’s 900 people who will sign it. So absolutely, when you understand that someone is not willing to do that, there is a reason for it. That’s it. Yeah.

 

Rick Jordan  

Right on, right. A lot of times it’s laziness, I really think, because they just think it’s going to come to them.

 

Barbara Isabel  

Yeah, yeah, whatever it is, like, I’m not, I don’t want to be a part of it.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, I’m with you now. Oh, I love it. Well, I’m excited for you to talk about this stuff tonight. I wish I could be there myself to hear you talk about this.

 

Barbara Isabel  

I’m sure my friends are gonna take videos. Will be posting, please.

 

Rick Jordan  

I want to see those. It’s awesome. I’m impressed. It’s been only five years from just starting in the business to having your own group, and you’ve got everything ready to go. I appreciate your heart, I appreciate your spirit. I appreciate your fire. All right, so we’ve got to send everybody somewhere. I know you don’t do a lot of marketing, but where can everybody find you?

 

Barbara Isabel  

Instagram, barbaraisabelre like real estate. That’s my Instagram. If you want to reach. To me, my email address is pretty much the same, you know, gmail.com, and I would say that’s the best way to find me. You can, you know, DM me. You can email me. You can call me on my cell phone, my actual cell phone. I’m not one of those who has three different cell phones. I only have one. It’s in there. I’m very open, you know, I’m very open about everything I do. I’m very passionate about what I do. I’m starting my own fund now, we’re looking to raise about 20 million to go deep into, you know, affordable housing and a bunch of other fun stuff. So I just pretty much, you know, you can find me there, but I also dare anybody out there, especially in the city of LA, to compete with what I can offer.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s awesome, from lawyer to real estate agent to real estate group owner and now to impact investor Barbara. Thank you for coming on today and just making us all smile.

 

Barbara Isabel  

Thank you so much, Rick, thank you so much for having me on.