Founders In The Lab with Ruben Kanya

GUEST SUMMARY

Putting their white coats on this week are full-time real estate investors and developers, and founders of Winterspring Capital — Nick Earls and Eric DiNicola. They have been friends for almost two decades and their unique relationship have allowed them to both tack on a very niched multi-family condo opportunity while complimenting each other's strengths and weaknesses and while having the same core values growing up and now growing their businesses together.

Having a construction background, Nick confidently dove into Real Estate and ventured into the strong condominium market in Boston after college. Over a decade, he experienced all phases of commercial real estate, including asset management, sales, new construction development, and property management. Being an expert in underwriting and asset management in the multifamily space, he authored the top-rated book “Making Millions through Multi-Family Development.”

On the other hand, Eric in New York dealt with public and private equity companies and stock trading. When he realized how to break free from the 9-5 office hours cycle, he moved back to Boston and joined Nick to begin their experiments.

Together, their partnership developed and grew into several multifamily development strategies from value add 100+ unit complexes in the Southeast to affordable housing, to luxury multifamily condominium development. They balance long-term value-add multifamily investments with short-term profits from condominium developments.

In this episode, Nick and Eric are going to walk us through their experience from condo development, dealing with the neighborhood, their pushbacks along the way, and how they’ve created a very niched strategy that most investors shy away from. If you’re the type of person that enjoys going left when everybody is going right then you’ll want to tune into the opportunity that Nick and Eric have developed. No pun intended...ok maybe just a little bit, enjoy the show!

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

03:24 - Background of the guests

06:46 - Complementing your business partners

11:02 - Condo Development

13:58 - Pillars of evaluating an opportunity

KEEPING IT REAL:

18:20 - Are we restricted into 2 units?

19:58 - Starting a process that is specific with the other projects

23:33 - Why do we need to have a zoning attorney involved

28:46 - Making your building blend in the neighborhood

31:13 - How involved are you in the meetings

34:01 - What are the pushbacks? - Does everybody win?

38:01 - Affordable housing project

47:00 - Capital Raising

50:55 - Value Add

58:13 - Find more about the guests

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

6.50 -  "We complement one another but at the same time, we have a lot of shared philosophies and shared strength. One thing that is unique with our relationship and the way we work together is we do share a lot of same goals -- financial freedom for our families and always for the greater good of the company" - Eric

23.33 - "This can be a completely different process from city to city but the red tape and the barriers create the opportunity. In a lot of cities that have very high prices for condos, there's going to be a similar process and strategies that can be used in New York, in Boston, and in San Francisco, cities like this are going to be pretty similar". - Nick

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Website: www.winterspringcapital.com

Book: https://winterspringcapital.com/development-book

This week in the lab, we have true experimenters who have experimented flipping remotely with your host truly in Atlanta and beyond. Vishnu and Leonard’s ying-yang partnership have allowed them to not only fill each other’s gaps but complement one another as they continue to grow and expand their real estate development portfolio in multiple different markets at once as remote flippers.

With a branding and marketing forte having done so in the corporate world, Leonard wears the hat when needed but is also as deep in the numbers as he needs to make the numbers work site unseen. 

Vishnu on the other hand — is a builder by trade having done so for over a decade in Chicago. Vishnu brings his unique expertise with scope control and management with contractors while also having keen expertise in strategic financing for their long-distance fix and flips around the East cost. 

Together they’ve assembled a strong team from New Jersey to Ohio to Atlanta where they’ve embodied deep systems and roots of fostering strong relationships within the communities to prospering elevate everyone collectively. This includes a strong relationship with your host Ruben Kanya who was honored to take part in a couple of their real estate development projects in Atlanta.

In this episode, Vishnu and Leonard are going to share with us their successful and unsuccessful experiments when it comes to Business Strategies in every state, remote flipping, diversifying their portfolio, and making every member and part of their community and partnership winners. Stick around until the last bit of the episode to see how you can experiment long distance with proven systems and partnerships in place to turn more experiments into win/win situations like Vishnu and Leonard have.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

02:34 - Background of the guests

11:25 - More about Leonard

14:45 - Started Building as partners - Fix and Flipping

17:44 - Why Fix and Flipping?

KEEPING IT REAL:

21:11 - Why Fundability becomes an issue?

24:50 - Dealing with a hard money lender

28:33 - Working with hard money and private investors

31:40 - Loan to cost vs Loan to value

35:15 - Why you should always start with the repair value

41:59 - Interest Rates

46:52 - Does Business Strategy change in every State?

51:50 - Diversifying Portfolio

54:54 - When should we use private money?

59:16 - Why aren’t all Huds created equal?

1:00:13 - Remote Flipping

1:04:39 - Draw Schedule

1:12:20 - Advantages of Draw Schedule

1:16:51 - Draw Inspection

1:23:09 - Small Business Credit

1:32:39 - Buying your STR through Business Credit

1:36:04 - Buying old properties and appreciate it

1:40:12 - New Construction

1:44:53 - Pivoting to New Construction Development

1:54:00 - What’s next for Shoreditch Consulting

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Facebook: https://www.shoreditchconsultingllc.com/home/

Email: [email protected]

[email protected]

GUEST SUMMARY

Camilla joins us in the lab having worn multiple hats as a transaction coordinator, process improvement specialist, Human Resources tech professional, music conservatory, owner of Choice Properties and Steady Stream Investments, and a mother of 5 and still considers herself an introvert.

While Camilla experimented in single family, cosmetic rehabs while engaging her children in the process, in retrospect she wishes she would have known about the benefits of passive investing with a general partner to get similar if not better returns with less headaches and work. Today she does both and is an advocate for passive investing and active investing as a general partner. Her mission is to share with other investors especially women that you can be a GP or LP and still be successful as an introverted investor. You don’t need to go against the grain and knock on doors and cold call to be successful.

With 18 years of experience in a diverse array of real estate models and businesses, today Camilla makes it a point to educate other busy professionals on how to invest in real estate to secure their financial future. She is uniquely positioned to coach and guide investors to scale and diversify their investments in a style most suitable to them — the introverted way.

In this episode, you will get a chance to discover your own blinds spots as an investor like Camilla did to see that there is a better way and not one way of investing. If you want to be successful in the ascension and progression of your real estate business and life, whether you are an introvert or not, you’ll get key insights to enhancing the experiments you build day to day in your own lab.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

3:37 - Background of the guest

5:22 - How to tackle a new opportunity

8:52 - Learning Property Management

11:52 - How instruments work different parts of your brain

15:06 - Steady Keys Investments

KEEPING IT REAL:

17:33 - Being able to work outside your comfort zone

22:56 - Nature vs Nurture

25:50 - What is an entrepreneur?

29:31 - Seek out five different things that would work out for you

31:05 - Having a lot of mentors

34:45 - Choosing a perspective

37:46 - Big shift in the business

42:19 - Transitioning to big apartments

46:32 - Finding the right groups of investors

51:03 - How to learn and start navigating the business

55:35 - Life is never balance

57:16 - More about the guest

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

"Entrepreneur is willing to have the courage to tackle things on their own, without someone else telling them that they have to do it, without taking direction from other people. They see a problem and they're willing to go out and solve that problem"

"You can seek out five different ways and pick the best one that suits you and then you can move your business forward on that but don't spend all this time relying only on your own brain, you don't know what you don't know"

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Website: https://camillajeffs.com/  | https://steadystreaminvestments.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theintroverted_investor/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camilla-jeffs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camilla.jeffs

#Introvert #PassiveInvesting #Investor

GUEST SUMMARY

Sharing insights with us this week in the lab is the passionate learner and devoted student of mastery, Nick Velasquez. He's the founder of the popular blog UnlimitedMastery.com with some of his writing  featured in TIME, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global around the topic.

Learning has been Nick's life-long passion and gives purpose to his life.  While Nick constantly tackled new hobbies, he felt frustration in the learning curve and so devoted himself to the mastery of learning, how we learn as functional human beings. Eventually, he wanted to create a manual of his life, condensing all the information into something that he could use in the future and help anyone else in a similar position.

At a time when everyone had time to reflect on new passions, interests and skills, Nick, launched his book --- Learn, Improve, Master: How to Develop Any Skill and Excel at it in the middle of the pandemic.

In this episode, Nick will walk us through his life's never-ending process of learning. From defining your goal, knowing the things you want to do, exemplifying sacrifices, being balanced with the natural conditions of life to having the confidence in winning the everyday battle of life. If you'd like to be the master of your life, you want to tune in from the beginning to begin mastering your new upcoming and ongoing experiments in your lab.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

04:18 - Why Nick wrote the book Learn, Improve, Master: How to Develop Any Skill and Excel at It

06:01 - What is Mastery?

07:04 - Definition of being competent

09:14 - Learn as you need

13:03 - Learn in-depth and apply it

KEEPING IT REAL:

16:10 - Defining the end goal

19:34 - Quantity leads to quality

22:49 - Mastering things that you enjoy

25:44 - Knowing the things you want to do

32:18 - Natural condition of Life - Struggle

38:59 - Being balanced and exemplifying sacrifice

44:31 - Key takeaways to master something

50:37 - Overcoming the resistance

57:42 - What’s next for Nick?

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

6:37 - 6:48 -  Learning is getting to a point of competence because mastery is really not a destination, you never reach mastery. You are trying to go as far as you can until you drop dead and that's the mastery. It's just a path but not a destination.

6:49 -  6:55 - "No master would call himself a master. Everyone, even the greatest one know that there's more to do, more to learn, and more to improve"

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/velznick/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/velznick

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/velznick/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/velznick/

GUEST SUMMARY

This week in the lab we have Todd Miller that graduated with a degree in Finance with honors, living the quote-on-quote dream of his parents working at a Global Fortune 500 Company.  Six months later, Later on, he found himself left out at the bottom, jobless and without a source of income due to the great recession.   

At rock bottom, Todd went down the path of personal finance and was driven not to rely on a company that has gone through this traumatic experience. He then turned to mortgage banking and started to learn a lot looking at thousands of people’s financial situations. From people who made 100K+ months to those who made less, He saw a correlation of the wealthy and quickly learned that building wealth had little to do with how much money they made but rather how much money they kept. He then saw a common denominator with the wealthy and that was real estate.  

This episode will help you see in the lens of Todd looking at thousands of wealthy individuals' wealth strategies with the use of real estate. Once he learned from the bank, he then became the bank (hard money lender) and continues to implement models that have helped him become financially free by 35. From having self-discipline by living below your means to cutting out expenses and doing self-audit into being a conservative investor by leveraging and investing in more assets. If you’d like to expedite your road to financial freedom, you don't want to miss this episode.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

03:34 - Background of the guest

11:13 - Living below your means

14:19 - Cutting out expenses that don’t matter

17:09 - Coffee analogy

18:01 - How to do self-audit

22:15 - What is Financial Freedom

KEEPING IT REAL:

25:40 - Being a conservative investor

28:48 - Infinite Banking

33:30 - Why people make a lot of deal portfolios

37:34 - Note Funds

40:51 - Exit strategy - Note

42:28 - Making profit from the $10,000 Note

48:18 - Why you should have invest in Bitcoin

50:35 - Why you should be investing in Airbnb properties

54:23 - Business models that help money coaching

57:30 - Working with VAs

1:00:44 - Financial discipline

1:02:35 - Deciding the next step for you

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

11:40 "The more willing you are to cut down expenses then the quicker you can amass money, the quicker you were able to buy additional assets and the sooner you become free"

1:00:51 - "Set yourself up for SUCCESS"

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Website: https://tightwadtodd.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tightwadtodd/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tightwadtodd/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TightwadTodd

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/TightwadTodd/

GUEST SUMMARY

This week we have Ryan Gibson in the lab that started as a commercial airline pilot and brought over the discipline of his checklists into becoming a Chief Investment Officer, who now dedicates his time to helping people save money using his 150 points due-diligence checklist for investor relations and raising capital for projects.

Ryan Gibson is the Chief Investment Officer and the Co-Founder of SIG. He has organized over $30M of private equity for Spartan’s projects. Ryan has experience managing the development of SIGs projects in challenging markets.

In this episode, you will learn the biggest obstacles that investors struggle within value add, development, and building facilities from the ground up while increasing cash flow as efficiently as possible. If you’re in the process of building or buying facilities and adding value by adding units to them within a structured environment, you don’t want to miss this.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

03:30 - Background of the guest

07:43 - Transitioning to airlines

11:48 - Importance of getting educated

15:28 - Learning as much about the real estate industry

KEEPING IT REAL:

21:20 - CEOs should stay at the strategic level

23:32 - Having better-defined criteria - saying no or yes to a deal

28:08 - How often should we look at the criteria

32:09 - Why self-storage

34:31 - Why you should study the market

41:15 - Setting expectations

45:01 - Experiment, Fail, Learn and Repeat

50:24 - Key takeaway - Human Capital

55:08 - Favorite book -  My Life and Work by Henry Ford

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

4:23 - “You do it right, or you die.” - Ryan Gibson

5:51 -  “Even the most basic things you’ve got to get on a checklist, because we’re people before we are investors, and we’re prone to make mistakes. And even the best Real Estate Investors that say I don’t need a checklist, I don’t need to have these things documented or processed are going to make mistakes, because of complacency.” - Ryan Gibson

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Website: https://spartan-investors.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spartaninvestmentgroup/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpartanInvestGp

Instagram: instagram.com/spartaninvestmentgroup/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/spartanhomebuyers

GUEST SUMMARY

This week we have Lisa Hylton, a former controller turned real estate syndicator in the lab who helps savvy entrepreneurs and business owners, like you, explore the world of commercial real estate by investing in opportunities that you understand to receive tax benefits, strong returns, and avoid the rollercoaster of market volatility.

Despite growing up around real estate, Lisa didn't fully understand the value of investing in real estate until her last position working as a controller on private equity real estate funds in the corporate world. The experience ignited her desire to invest in real estate and she discovered real estate syndications in 2019.

After investing passively in 4 private real estate investments as a passive investor and one private real estate investment as a general partner, Lisa Hylton was inspired and motivated to build a business that could provide opportunities to non-institutional investors to invest in private commercial real estate opportunities.

In this episode, you will learn how you can start getting your money working for you via real estate investments, becoming a passive investor, and how content can be a game-changer for your real estate business. If you are a real estate investor looking to begin investing in commercial real estate or starting your own syndication, this episode is definitely for you.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

1:48 - Background of the guest

3:29 - Type of asset class in the multifamily umbrella

5:37 - Real Estate Funds

11:27 - Replicating what others are doing

KEEPING IT REAL:

13:08 - Running funds in the corporate world

16:21 - Becoming a passive investor

20:13 - The biggest challenge in raising capital

28:06 - Transitioning to syndication

31:37 - Whom should we work with

36:54 - Content is a game-changer

44:11 - General partner vs Limited partner

46:28 - Four roles in syndication

50:54 - Building relationships with other operators

52:30 - The Importance of Systems

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

9:09 - “You have to keep in mind that especially when you’re buying real estate when you’re buying for personal reasons, or for personal purposes, it doesn’t always translate into a really good investment.” - Lisa Hylton

52:40 - “Everything that you’re trying to create is better when it’s systematized.” - Lisa Hylton

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Website: https://lisahylton.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelevelupREIpodcast/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisahyl/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGCl06UySL12jdstEqXjqiQ

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-hylton-0b992815/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaHylton16

GUEST SUMMARY

This week we have Van Sturgeon in the lab as a general contractor who evolved into a real estate investor, home builder and multiple business owner who now dedicates his time to helping everyday people save tons of money on being in control of their own renovations with or without a general contractor by using his repeatable system in his 30 years as investor and GC.

Van started his own renovation and construction company. To date, he has renovated and built thousands of homes, apartments, condominiums, and commercial buildings, and owns over 1,000 rental units across North America.

While having created multiple businesses that are involved in the construction, renovation, acquisition and management of properties, he has spent his life split between Chicago, Toronto and Miami Beach.

In this episode you will learn the biggest obstacles that investors struggle with while doing renovations, how to actually land quality contractors and get them to pick up the phone and most importantly how to come up with a statement of work and stay on budget and on time keeping your renovations cost at an all time low. If you’re in the process of undergoing a rehab now or in the future, you don’t want to miss this.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

00:53 - Background of the guest

KEEPING IT REAL:

16:02 - What did it feel like when you talk about investing?

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

Check out Van Sturgeon’s Website: https://vansturgeon.com/

This week we have Dan Haberkost in the lab who at the age of 25 has managed to build an impressive real estate business and portfolio that has allowed him to live and work where he wants by strategically niching down into selling and buying land.

Dan Haberkost owns Front Range Land & Development, which is a boutique development company working throughout the Pueblo West market specializing in single and small multi-family properties. With over two decades of experience in Pueblo West, we have gained substantial insight into the local market and understand the unique challenges that come with building new homes in Pueblo.

In this episode you will learn how to shorten the learning curve in real estate investing, wholesaling a deal, and transitioning your investment from single-family to large developments.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

1:16 - Getting Started with Dan Haberkost

11:57 - Experience in sales and management

13:24 - Duplexes, House Hacking, and Leveraging FHA

15:09 - How to shorten the learning curve in real estate investing

18:15 - The Real Estate Club

39:36 - The Efficient Market Hypothesis

44:33 - Building and selling land: raw land vs. shovel ready

45:18 - Building and selling land: Dealing with an absurd housing crisis

47:02 - Investing: Large development and land vs. Single-family vacant lots

49:51 - The Subdivision

52:40 - Time and Money

53:54 - Tips for Wholesalers if they’re bringing Vacant Land to a Developer

1:02:10 - Wholesaling a deal

KEEPING IT REAL:

16:38 - How to build a genuine relationship with a mentor if you want to go buy an apartment

21:41 - The results of giving advice to someone who’s starting at the real estate club

20:23 - Advice on starting at the real estate club

24:05 - Consistency: Over the long term with whatever you’re doing

27:42 - Thoughts as an Entrepreneur: Analogous or Vertically Integrated to What You’re Doing

30:27 - How did land come about and where is the opportunity there just to level?

37:41 - What you owe in a year for owning a piece of land

37:53 - What Vacant Land Means

52:40 - Time and money

53:54 - The tips for the wholesalers if they’re bringing a vacant land to a developer

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

“When I sell a lot, I really try and emphasize, if you ask me a question, Hey, you know, this is what they told me, go verify with them. I really don't want to put the liability on me, right? So if you're going to ask me questions about the liability or utilities, I'll get it in writing a lot of times. So one of the markets I'm in is very simple. They all have utilities. I’m not worried about it.” - Dan Haberkost

“Time isn’t money, time is worth more than money.” - Ruben Kanya

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

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This week we have Viktor Jiracek in the lab who took the journey from leaving an uneventful job to taking up real estate and aiming for 30 flips in a year with 20 a year already done.

Viktor Jiracek is an entrepreneur out of Gainesville Florida who is a full time fix and flip real estate investor. Viktor helps others get started on flipping houses. He completed 20 flips last year and his goal is an additional 30 flips for this year (2021). His best flip was a $64K deal.

In this episode, we will learn about creating the flow of numbers, the importance of branding, sourcing your deals with leads, and the two sides of course correction.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE:

1:00 - Background of the guest

22:40 - Numbers are the biggest thing

24:31 - Do what you’re passionate about vs doing what’s actually in need in the marketplace

31:05 - Sourcing: The source of deals

33:30 - The income goals

34:30 - The structure of the team: salary or percentage

44:42 - The mentoring on six-figure house flipper

KEEPING IT REAL:

13:57 - What’s strong about my branding?

21:01 - Knowing a good deal comes with: What are you buying for? What do you put into it? What are you going to sell it for?

29:38 - How does it look like on combining projects: The permanent team

31:46 - What’s interesting about a wholesaler?

36:56 - The biggest course correction in your business: Macro

38:38 - The biggest course correction in your business: Micro

NOTABLE QUOTES (KEY LESSONS):

 “So it's really like knowing a good deal really comes down to three numbers. It's like, what are you buying it for? What are you putting into it like repairs or renovation? What are you going to sell it for like RV? So that's really all you have to look at, because when they're when you're flipping a house, there are a million variables like, OK, what's the bedroom bathroom? What's the square footage? What's the neighborhood? What's the school district? Do you know? Is it a dirt road? Is it a paved road like there are a million variables? So just to make it as simple as possible, just break it down to three numbers. So that's what I recommend. And the other thing with that I do what's called 70 percent rule. So it's 70 percent RV like 70 percent. We can sell it for minus repairs, and that's a good deal.” 

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room.” 

“If you’re showing up late and you leave promises unfulfilled, you’re just not easy to work with. Even if you have the best brand in the world, that’s really hard to recover from.” 

CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST

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