Real Returns

Charles Carillo is the managing partner at Harborside Partners, a real estate syndication firm, where he has been actively investing in multifamily and commercial real estate since 2006. With over $200 million in investment real estate experience, he has become an expert in his field. In addition, Charles is the host of the Global Investors Podcast, where he interviews professionals about investing in U.S real estate, sharing insights and educating investors.

[00:01 - 09:17] Real Estate Syndications and Surviving Recessions

• Starting small with a multi-family property can provide a foundation for growth

• During times of uncertainty, focus on maximizing occupancy and collections

• Value-add deals can provide good returns without heavy development or renovation

• Working with a reliable general contractor can help manage renovations efficiently

[09:18 - 19:29] Investing Strategies and Impact on Communities

• Typical unit size for syndication should be a hundred plus to achieve economy of scale with full-time onsite management

• Focus on purchasing properties in B minus and above areas that have not yet fully priced in interest rates

• Smaller investments in the same area can make a positive impact on the neighborhood

• When tenants are provided with updated units, it increases tenant retention and boosts the overall impact of investing

[19:30 – 29:36] Lessons on Running a Real Estate Business

• Investors should be informed that investing in real estate is a business, not an annuity

• Transparent communication is key to ensuring investor satisfaction

• Distributions may vary over time and investors should be aware of potential fluctuations

• Forming a team with diverse skills and focusing on the strengths of each team member leads to success

[29:37 - 33:17] Closing Segment

• What is your biggest win?

• Purchasing, renovating and renting out a five-unit building

• Ben's favorite movie?

• Wall Street

• What is your current growth edge?

• Seeing growth thru referrals and building marketing thru LinkedIn

• What content or books are you reading right now?

• Chatham Financial

Connect with Charles:

Website: www.HarborsidePartners.com

Social Media: LinkedIn

Quotes:

"It's best to always start I think on a limited partner passive side and really find out how it works from their side and then seeing what you like and what you don't." - Charles Carillo

In this episode, Andrew gives a recap of the lessons learnt throughout this season and highlights how the guests interviewed are truly interesting individuals doing unique things inside the investment space.

[00:01 - 07:18] Episode 1 - 4 Recap

• Profitable properties are not only good for the owners, they're also good for the tenants
• Seeing the bed and breakfast space as a institutional real estate investment opportunity
• designing and developing an app to help to improve financial education and financial literacy
• Helping get loans to small businesses and believing that they can create an impact in the community and the world

[07:19 - 15:36] Episode 5 - 8 Recap

• Having a servant hearted approach when dealing with investors
• Lending and deploying capital into community by being a community lender
• How impact correlates to multi-family acquisitions
• Guiding and educating investors on the impact of their investment

Sumit Koovor is the head of Investor Relations at Reiturn.com & Birgo Capital and in this episode he talks about how he is able to help investors across the world invest in one of the most resilient asset classes, multifamily real estate, in the heartland of America and help them build financial freedom.

[00:01 - 07:54] Diving into the Uniqueness of Real Estate

• Sumit shares about his background and how he got started in investor relations
• Looking into real estate to help develop wealth
• Analyzing the impact of leverage on the investment in both the multifamily and stock perspective
• Seeing the repercussions from the loose banking policy

[07:55 - 17:26] Understanding the Impact of Investor Relations

• Recognizing the lack of quality investments and real estate decision-making education
• Help steward the capital of busy individuals
• Understanding the strategy that helps investors make better decisions and invest without fear for their future
• Building relationships with investors and having joy in seeing them succeed

[17:27- 24:52] Educating the Next Generation of Investors

• Engaging investors at an early age about their future investments
• Understanding their goals and help them meet it
• Helping them learn about diversification their portfolio
• Coming across challenges when educating younger investors

[24:53 - 35:41] Helping Investors Know Their Why

• People know their why but are reluctant to share
• Asking questions to get deeper into their why
• Approaching them as individuals
• Helping them understand not only the risk but how they plan to grow the investment

[35:42] Closing Segment

• What is your biggest win?
• • Seeing his parents proud of his achievements
  • Having an impact on multiple generations in his family
• Sumit Koovor's favorite movie
• • Anything starring Robin Williams
• Sumit Koovor's favorite food
• • Mandarin Jarritos
• What is your current growth edge?
• • Having the opportunity to be in leadership roles
  • Be active in growing a portfolio
• What content or books are you reading right now?
• • Ray Dalio
  • Alex Harmozi
  • Tony Robbins

Tweetable Quotes:

"And so it's always about building that comfort with a certain client to what answers they need" - Sumit Koovor

"There's power in learning the principles of saving and not living off of everything that you earn and then also deploying that capital to actually earn over time."- Sumit Koovor

Josh is a principal at Birgo and is primarily responsible for all aspects of acquisitions, including prospecting, deal screening, underwriting, negotiations, due diligence, and closing. He has successfully sourced and closed on approximately $275 million of investment real estate. Josh also oversees capital raises for funds, Birgo's commercial real estate portfolio, and all fund marketing campaigns.

[00:00 - 12:10] Providing Impact in the Work Itself

• Falling in love with the idea of purchasing one time for perpetual returns
• Understanding how the real estate business impacts people's lives
• Measuring impact through anecdotes, reports, and quantifiable data

[12:11 - 27:26] No One Wants Surprises through the Deal-Making Process

• Josh identifies what it takes to be a good property management
• Acquiring stabilized but underutilized multifamily
• Due diligence by looking into past performance, physical property inspections, and vendor relationships

[27:27 - 32:33] The Importance of Encouraging Transparency and Collaboration

• A relational approach to the deal-making process and inviting collaboration
• Making the transaction as smooth as possible through closer involvement
• Having people excited to be a tenant in your properties

[32:34 - 40:06] Closing Segment

• The Lightning Round
• Know more about how you can invest actively at www.reiturn.com!

Connect with Josh!

Website: www.reiturn.com

Quotes:

"I think societally we can tend to think that there's the work that a business does and then there's this little footnote on the website that says, 'We care about people and we donate'... Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. It's wonderful to be philanthropic and give to charity. But I think what that subtly signals is that… there's impact and there's what we actually do…two separate things. And I think that just doesn't have to be the case. The work itself is impactful, and what the business does should be set up that everybody believes we are making a positive dent in the world through our business itself." - Josh Fischer

"We've actually built impact into the whole reason we exist as a business, it's not just this little corner that we have at the bottom of our website buried in the footnotes where we're talking about, you know, we donate some portion of profits… There doesn't have to be this dichotomy, you can actually think about impact in terms of the good that your work does in the world." - Josh Fischer

Visit our website www.reiturn.com to learn more about High-Quality Recession Resistant Assets for the Everyday Investor

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Sadie McKeown, president of Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), joins us to discuss the unique mission and impact of her organization. She discusses how CPC has been able to access different types of capital, including sustainability bonds, to continue providing financing to underserved communities. Listen as she talks about their focus on affordability across a spectrum of income levels, as well as their commitment to transitioning to a clean energy economy and closing the racial wealth gap through supporting participation in accumulating wealth.

A seasoned leader with 30 years of history at the company, Sadie is President of The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC). In this capacity, she leads the development and implementation of CPC's growth strategy and oversees all of the company's field offices, its construction lending initiatives, and its equity and impact investing platforms. Sadie also works to align climate and affordability in the multifamily space as a board member of the New York State Housing Finance Agency, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (NYCEEC).

[00:00 - 11:39] The Essence of Affordable Housing and Community Involvement

• Creating CPC for construction loans and boosting the economy in NYC and beyond
• The aim of preserving the affordability of real estate and homeownership
• Intentionally addressing the racial wealth gap by encouraging involvement

[11:40 - 38:24] Closing the Racial Wealth Gap through Sustainable Support

• Sadie explains the operations, initiatives, and collaborations within CPC
• Supporting the communities to participate in wealth accumulation
• The climate aspect of real estate - the aim towards a clean energy economy

[38:25 - 39:39] Closing Segment

• Be part of the community at https://communityp.com/!

Connect with Sadie!

Website: https://communityp.com/

Resources Mentioned

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Quote:

"We're now very intentionally reaching to bring brown, black people from the community into the real estate world and get them to own and operate real estate, and then, you know, achieve the wealth that comes along with it." - Sadie McKeown

Visit our website www.reiturn.com to learn more about high-quality, recession-resistant assets for the everyday investor.

LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND LEAVE US A REVIEW on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in, and Stay Tuned for the next episode COMING SOON!

In this episode, we talk to Ben Erskine, Ben is the founder and managing partner at Callis Capital, a real estate investment firm focused on providing equity capital to values-aligned owners and operators of real estate throughout the United States.

[00:01 - 08:14] Opening Segment

• Ben talks about Callis Capital
• Real estate as a ministry opportunity
• Investor goals such as capital, encouragement, and thought leadership

[08:14- 17:09] Creating Impact in the Community

• Looking at impact as being physical, practical, social, emotional, and spiritual
• Staying intentional and accountable to the impact we're seeking to have
• Having a holistic approach toward tenants
• Having metrics be relational first transactional second

[17:10- 32:04] Creating Relationships Towards the Community and Stakeholders

• Creating trust and being in the community
• Focusing on tenants, communities, and investors
• Delivering outsized impact toward the marketplace
• Importance of defining your why and mission

[32:04- 37:13] Closing Segment

• What is your biggest win?
• Launching Fund 1 in 2020
• Ben's favorite movie?
• The new Maverick Movie
• Favorite food?
• Wife's shrimp pasta
• What is your current growth edge?
• The way the deal flow comes out to the community
• What content or books are you reading right now?
• The faith-driven investor, the faith-driven community

Connect with Ben!

Website: https://www.calliscapital.com/

Tweetable Quotes:

"And if you're loving on people really, really well, you're gonna have an easier time. Building a fabric of community that keeps people longer, that becomes actually a pipeline for new tenants and is an attractive kind of a beacon for new tenants. And that should drive occupancy, vacancy down, turnover down, the costs associated with turnover down, which in turn means NOI goes up and there's value creation as a result of NOI improvement." - Ben Erskine

"All investing is impact investing. It's just a matter of what kind of impact you want to have."- Ben Erskine

In this episode, we talk to George Cook, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Honeycomb Credit. Honeycomb Credit is a community capital platform where anyone can invest in an independently-owned small businesses have the potential to earn attractive returns and feel good about where they're putting their money to work.

[00:01 - 09:00] Honeycomb Credit Business Model

• George tells about his start in community banking and how he helped launch Honeycomb Credit
• Serving businesses and serving the people who invest in small businesses
• Providing access to business loans for individuals in disadvantaged communities
• Offering opportunities for investment to both accredited and non-accredited investors

[09:01- 25:16] Doing Due Diligence

• Invest as little as a hundred dollars across all campaigns
• The importance of knowing the risks involved in investing
• Due diligence is done for every loan application
• Most loans are used for expansion projects or moving in brick and mortar

[25:17- 33:29] Vision of Honeycomb and the Founders

• Building confidence as a business in the community and seeing returning clients
• Having a passion of helping change people's lives
• Being uniquely passionate as well being uniquely qualified
• Helping develop communities

[33:30- 38:12] Closing Segment

• What is your biggest win?
• Hitting the 5 year mark with Honeycomb Credit
• George Cook's favorite movie and food?
• The Darkest Hour
• Anything fermented
• What is your current growth edge?
• Creating a team that resonates with the message of Honeycomb
• What content or books are you reading right now?
• The Economist

Connect with George!

Website: https://www.honeycombcredit.com/

Email: [email protected]

Tweetable Quotes:

"We have hundreds of people that invest relatively small amounts of money into a small business. We need to move the money from those people, deploy it to the small business, take the money from the small business and deploy it back to all those people." - George Cook

"Because we've built a bigger pool of investors on our network, because we've improved the technology and improved conversion rates and made it easier for people to invest, and for those reasons, we've started to gain confidence that we can continue to serve businesses for a longer period of time."- George Cook

We all know the importance of financial literacy, but facing financial problems is commonplace. According to studies, money is the top cause of stress. In today's episode, Gene and Jeff discuss how financial education is impactful for today and future generations.

Mr. Natali is the CEO of Troutwood, a financial technology company. At Troutwood, Gene builds financial planning and investment education tools for individuals.

Mr. Davidek creates software tools and games to help people better understand money, make good financial decisions, and avoid major mistakes. He also co-manages Troutwood. Previously, Jeff worked in institutional asset management, i-banking, and at a REIT.

[00:00 - 14:12] Financial Literacy for the Young through Technology

• Building software for individuals to build and implement a working financial plan
• Why 17-year-olds must be part of the financial conversations
• Addressing the gap in financial literacy for the younger generation

[14:13 - 37:26] The Journey to Changing the Trajectory of Financial Empowerment

• The aim to make an impact from the young to businesses and government organizations
• Solidifying the fundamentals to allow for personal and professional excellence
• Going back to basics to build strong communities through education

[37:27 - 39:55] Closing Segment

• Be a beta tester and sign up at https://www.troutwood.com/!

Connect with Gene and Jeff!

Website: https://www.troutwood.com/

Quotes:

"Action has to follow education when it comes to our finances… Young people have hope. Pair hope with a plan, and they are going to see brighter and better futures. I believe [there will be] happier homes, healthier communities, less drug use, and less financial stress. Financial stress, statistically, is the number one source of stress both at home and in the workplace." - Gene Natali

"When people are struggling with financial stress, it's difficult to think about those things that could really help them excel." - Jeff Davidek

"Financial literacy, education, in theory, is intended to lead to financial empowerment. If we achieve financial empowerment within our classrooms, I believe innovation will occur, which [will be] very good for the communities [and] very good economically. That can only happen if people have an understanding of their basic finances." - Jeff Davidek

Evan Addams is a technology entrepreneur that has led a diverse portfolio of hospitality and healthcare tech startup companies. In addition to that, he has founded a direct-to-consumer coffee company, invested in various types of real estate, and recently started owning and operating a bed & breakfast group, CarriageWay Bed & Breakfast.

Today's episode features Evan as he discusses how bed and breakfasts can provide meaningful experiences for guests and how technology can be used to deepen relationships. We talk about our personal experiences visiting different bed and breakfasts around the world and how they've enriched our lives. We also delve into how other industries could benefit from the cross-pollination that bed and breakfasts provide. Evan also shares his thoughts on how investing in a bed and breakfast has helped him connect with people in a unique way, while also providing economic stability in challenging times.

[00:00 - 08:40] Real Estate Investing for the Young and New

• Evan Addams is involved in the real estate industry in a variety of ways, including owning and operating a bed and breakfast
• Evan's passion is to make an impact on communities, which is why he invested in a mixed use building that would be used for community purposes

[08:41 - 17:20] How Evan and His Wife Built a Bed and Breakfast Empire

• Evan and his wife are a team
• 10 years of traveling allowed them to get to know a local community and have a unique experience compared to staying at a big box hotel
• We've also explored renting out second homes

[17:20 - 25:52] Bed and Breakfast Owner Uses Technology to Deepen Relationship with Guests

• Evan has seen a rise in guests due to the pandemic of loneliness
• Evan's Bed and Breakfast business can help combat the pandemic of loneliness by providing a hands-on experience, curated experiences, and investing into technology to deepen relationships with their guests

[25:52 - 34:45] Bed and Breakfast Owners Struggle to Keep Prices Competitive

• B and Bs are trying to adapt to the touchless experience by creating community spaces and enhancing their checkout process
• The key to success for B and Bs is to focus on long-term relationships with their guests and keep prices competitive

[34:46 - 42:51] B and B Keeps Prices Low Amidst Recession

• The B&B industry is experiencing a recession, and Evan recommends pricing to be in line with the market rate instead of 200 in order to keep cover costs
• Evan takes on The Lightning Round
• Tips for Impactful Real Estate Investing

Quotes:

"When we think hospitable, we're not talking about just great decor Instagram worthy. We're talking about cleanliness. We're talking about thoughtfulness. We're talking about a space that allows somebody to feel safe and confident to break out of isolation or some version of social distancing." - Evan Addams

"You can take lessons from customer success of how your favorite tech company might interact with you." - Evan Addams

JC Castillo is the President & CEO of Velo Residential, a third party property management and renovation company specializing in large scale multifamily properties in Texas and Oklahoma. Velo Residential specializes in third party property management for large scale multi-family properties in the Texas and Oklahoma area. JC has over 15 years of experience in the industry, and says that "owners are usually good people who want to build profitable businesses, and profits are good for both residents and landlords." JC believes that "having profit at property is a completely complementary business to be in both for the residents and for the landlords to be making profits and putting money back into their properties." JC is passionate about impacting the lives of her residents and employees. Join us as he shares his insights about profitable properties that not just benefit the owners but also the residents. Learn more about importance of understanding the impact that your dollars have on those around you and how to invest in a way that has a lasting impact. Tune in!

[00:00 - 07:38] Opening Segment

• JC Castillo discuss his history in the property management industry
• Velo Residential focuses on large scale multi-family properties
• Owners are generally good people who want to build profitable businesses
• Profits are good for both residents and landlords
• Velo Residential offers an innovative solution to the problems faced by traditional third party management companies

[07:38 - 15:04] Why Properties aren't Benefitting the Residents

• America is a country with 50% of its GDP coming from small businesses, most of which are multi-family operators
• When looking at multi-family properties, it is important to focus on online reviews to measure tenant satisfaction
• Apology and response to reviews are important parts of the company's strategy.

[15:05 - 22:47] How to Ensure 100% Customer Satisfaction

• Have a maintenance survey and a move-in survey that goes out to every single resident
• Monitor the reviews and surveys to get feedback on how your service is doing
• Look at the comments to see how the customer is doing
• If there are any problems, try to respond as soon as possible

[22:47 - 30:28] How to Screen for Employees with Integrity, Intelligence, and a "Get It Done" Attitude

• 3 Tips for Hiring the Right Candidate for Your Position
• Have references that you and the candidate share similarities in order to get a good understanding of how they will function under pressure
• Give candidates scenarios they may encounter in their position, so they can talk through their thought process
• Virtualize back office work can help to reduce stress on onsite managers and make them more productive.
• Owners who are frustrated with traditional management companies and the way their onsite staff are performing are likely to be interested in Velo Residential's unique approach

[30:28 - 40:32] Closing Segment

• JC undergoes The Lightning Round
• JC's Tips for Impactful Real Estate Investing
• Profitable properties have a positive impact on not only the owners, but also the residents and community
• How to make an impactful real estate investment: Understand the impact of one's dollars

Connect with JC

Website: www.veloresidential.com

Facebook: Velo Residential

Quotes:

"When you don't take care of your property I think you get flushed down the toilet bowl because that's what business is all about. If you're making terrible bread no one's gonna eat your bread." - JC Castillo

"Try to look at a lot of different options." - JC Castillo

"Asking the customer how you're doing is really the best way to know whether you're really doing right by the customer." - JC Castillo