Miami hometown favorite Alex Rodriguez, founder and CEO of A-Rod Corp., made his first real estate move 20 years ago.

The 14-time All Star infielder bought a duplex where he "put in some value add" in the form of blue awnings and cream-colored paint. Best known for his accomplishments on the baseball field, A-Rod  shared his insights from business to his baseball career at the Mortgage Bankers Association's CREF multifamily convention in San Diego.

"Success starts starts with people and relationships," Rodriguez said when talking about building his Woodland Hills, California-based business empire, a move he started out of fear. "If you look at macro trends, the numbers were frightening."

The former Yankee, Ranger and Mariner explained fewer than 5% of baseball players have college degrees, and most athletes make 80% of their money in their 20s. He beat the odds with a 22-year Major League baseball career.

"Many have financial trouble after playing, and I wanted to plan for something after my baseball career," he said.

That investment turned into some strategic pivoting, where more than half of his time is spent running his private equity firm while the rest is in entertainment.

What's important to success, according to Rodriquez, is who's around you.

"You are only as good as the five people you surround yourself with," Rodriguez said. "Hiring great people is one of the ways I have been able to be successful."

Real estate has been a mainstay of his business, investing about $400 million of equity in buying multifamily units in secondary markets through Fannie Mae. "They are nothing fancy, but our returns to our LPs have been north of 30%."

But not all have been wins.

One strikeout he mentioned includes a 500-unit portfolio purchased in Tampa at $60,000 a door that overnight was worth about $42,000 per door.

"We ended up cutting a deal with the bank, but I had people at the table with me with experience and a great track record," he said.