Sebastian Garza was raised in Mexico and moved to Houston, Texas five years ago. He is working on his degree in finance in Commercial Real Estate at the University of Houston while also working on obtaining his CCIM designation. In his downtime, Sebastian enjoys fitness and playing golf.

In Sebastian’s first year with XAG Properties, he has played a key role in Development, secured Investors, and became an Investor himself. Sebastian aims to lead the private equity sector at XAG Group and become active in multi-family development.

When asking Sebastian what drew him to Commercial Real Estate he stated “it has given me the ability to be my own boss and not be limited to what I can accomplish in my career. I love working with XAG Properties because has taught me so much about Commercial Real Estate and the team environment is encouraging and always supportive.” While his key role is representing XAG’s Development on the landlord side, if you are in need of buying, selling, or being represented as a tenant, Sebastian is the right Agent for you!

When we asked Sebastian about his experience here at XAG, this is what he had to say:

As my second summer with XAG comes to end, I would like to highlight some of the great things that XAG has taught me. I’ve always knew I had a passion for real estate, it was just a matter of learning more about it and getting myself in the field. I spend numerous hours watching/ reading about real estate that I just knew that’s what I wanted to do. Fast-forward to February 2021 XAG welcomed me with open arms and gave me the opportunity to join the company as a marketing associate. During this time as marketing associate, I oversaw the creation of advertisement post for the company, make sure our properties received exposure through marketing platforms such as costar/LoopNet, I was also in charge of researching for prospective tenants that can be useful to our real estate team. Although, marketing wasn’t what I initially want, it opened the door for me to explore this industry but most importantly, marketing thought the importance of marketing in this industry, the fundamentals, and the vocabulary used in Commercial real estate.

Fast-forward a few months, thank to my mentor and CEO, Nathaliah Naipaul, I decided to pursue my real estate license and work cohesively with our real estate brokerage department. Working as a commercial real estate agent at XAG has brought tremendous value to my career. As an agent I have had the privilege of working with extremely knowledgeable peopled that have taught me how to underwrite deals before presenting to a landlord, what to look for in a property when representing your client, understanding the importance of demographics in a given area, connecting with local businesses in the area, networking with professionals in the field and had the opportunity to attend national retail events such as ICSC and Retail Live.

XAG has also given me the opportunity to excel and learn about private equity and the process that comes with it. As I start to learn more about it, I am starting to realize that this the filed in real estate I would like to pursue. Working in this position, I have been exposed to the acquisition process of the property, working simultaneously with the development department, running proformas to determine if a project is viable in the area, creating offering memorandums that will be used for investment presentations, acquiring investors, learned how to create and understand a company formation documents, working with banks for a  refinance on a Retail Development, and most importantly, XAG has given me the opportunity to be an investor in a Retail Development.

The opportunities and knowledge I have gain with XAG is something I will always be grateful for. It has taught me the skills needed to excel in this industry. To wrap this up, I would like to thank my mentor and CEO, Nathaliah Naipaul for the constant guidance and support. I would also like to thank XAG for giving me the opportunity to break into this industry and guide me along the way.