Jose Berlanga, Former Owner and CEO of Tricon Homes
When Jose Berlanga, former owner and CEO of Tricon Homes and present-day real estate developer with Onyx Land Partners, arrived in Houston, Texas, in the mid-1980s to attend the University of St. Thomas, he did so propelled, in part, by his family’s firm belief that a college education in the United States would be key to his future success.
Although Berlanga, who had grown up in Mexico in what he describes circumspectly as “difficult” circumstances and who had, in his childhood, overcome an accident in which he received third-degree burns over a large portion of his body, did complete multiple degrees as his family had expected, he did not wait for college to be over to get started in business.
“As soon as I got to Houston, I could not wait,” Berlanga recalled. “College is the best time to start something because, typically, you have no overhead [because] you do not have a family to support. You have time, strength, energy, and positivity. It is a time that a lot of young people waste, but I got the memo very young that I wanted to run a business. As soon as I got here, I started looking for opportunities.”
Jumping In with Both Feet
Berlanga recalled “starting work the moment I got [to college].” The first thing he did, he said, was look for opportunities everywhere. “That is how you start a business,” he explained. “Ask yourself who you know, what you like, and to whom you can go.”
Berlanga discovered he was a natural at “communicating with people and building relationships,” so he used contacts his father helped him make within the oil and gas industry to start a business with his father, who had retired but had the technical knowledge to make the new business work.
“It is rare that one entrepreneur will bring everything to the table,” Berlanga observed. “My father had the technical knowledge, and I was good at talking to vendors and manufacturers.”
The business, which revolved around providing maintenance parts and manuals to companies in Mexico, was extremely successful. At one point, Berlanga believed he would retire early using the income he had generated from this business.
“I was very happy, very successful, and I thought I would remain in that business for the duration of my career and then retire,” he recalled. “To my surprise,” he admitted, “life has a way of deciding on its own, without you, where it is headed.”
In the early 1990s, the economies in both Mexico and the United States shifted course, and the company’s clients began to fall behind on their payments. This led Berlanga’s company to also fall behind, and, he said, “To make a long story short, they put me out of business.”
He said his youth played a role in that financial hardship because “when you are that young, you do not necessarily manage your money properly.” Berlanga continued, “I made a big mistake. Instead of cashing out when things got difficult, we doubled down, opening more offices, investing more money, and looking for more clients.” He concluded, “It was the wrong time to have done that.” Although he managed to pay off all the company debts, the business ultimately went under.
Making a Difficult Journey
Although the end of his first business was “tough and mentally draining,” Berlanga was soon back in the swing of things, looking for more opportunities. His accountable and reliable behavior during the growth and eventual downfall of his first business had not gone unnoticed, and he found that many people were not just willing, but eager to work with him on new ventures.
“One piece of advice I give the younger generation is to always do the best you can because you do not know who is watching,” Berlanga said. “Your good ethics will bring you new opportunities.”
He started multiple businesses during this time, the most significant of which he founded with his brother, Tristan. By this time, Berlanga had a reputation for being good at putting deals together, working out financing, and finding “the right person for the right job,” as he described it.
Not surprisingly, these skills translated into opportunities in real estate, and Berlanga and his brother started a construction company in the late 1990s. Tristan had background in architecture and environmental engineering, and the two decided to start building homes.
“He was the technical side, and I was the finance and business side of things,” Berlanga said. “It was a new start with just one little bungalow.” This business would become the residential behemoth Tricon Homes, which eventually led the industry with yearly revenues in excess of $100 million and has been recognized as a “pivotal component” in the revitalization of Houston’s inner-city neighborhoods during that time.
“We realized ahead of much of the rest of the industry that people were starting to drive into the city from the suburbs to go out and enjoy new restaurants, bars, and museums,” Berlanga recalled. “We felt it was time for a lot of the older neighborhoods inside the city to come back because of their location, and we were willing to pioneer that opportunity. That was really the birth of that business.”
The business thrived until the mid-2000s when the real estate market and global financial market crashed. Tricon Homes hung in there, though, and although they “lost millions,” Berlanga said, “paying banks, paying vendors, surviving one day at a time,” they managed to pay every debt and, by 2011, most of their competition was gone and the brothers were still in business.
“I think we had such credibility because we did not let any financial institution down that they were willing to lend to us during the rebuilding,” Berlanga said. “We were able to take the business back to where it had been before and then start diversifying, change our business model a little bit, and get involved in different sectors of real estate.”
Eventually Tristan retired, and Berlanga kept building.
Telling the Story and Serving as a Guide
Today, Berlanga continues to invest in real estate, and he has added several other activities to his roster. He has written several books and also offers training and motivation for other entrepreneurs, especially those just starting out. Berlanga is also a certified real estate continuing education (CE) instructor.
“There are different phases of where you are in your career and life, but you can always sit down for a moment and figure out if you are living a life that aligns with your principles and dreams,” he explained. “Once you do that, you can always find a few minutes of your life every day to plant the seeds for the life you want.”
For Berlanga, those seeds involved finding time to write, but without sacrificing his integrity or dedication to his investments or existing businesses. “Always build your credit, your relationships, your experiences, and your resume. I do not care if you are in your thirties or your sixties; you can still succeed. You just have to remember that no matter your age, it does not happen overnight, and it requires you to become better at time management,” he said.
Berlanga also emphasized the importance of identifying not only personal weaknesses, but also personal strengths.
“I have always made it a point to identify my limitations so I know what is keeping me from succeeding, but then I focus on learning to utilize those deficiencies in my favor,” Berlanga explained. “Everybody has the ability to become the best version of themselves and use that version to not only produce income but also to become successful at something they truly enjoy.”
Learn more about Jose Berlanga at JoseBerlanga.com.
