SteelPoint Capital was built on a simple premise: real estate investors need fast, reliable financing. Traditional lenders take weeks or months and come with red tape. Hard money lenders understand the asset and the operator.

Here's what that means in practice: 10-12% fixed returns paid monthly (or compounded), 24-48 hour underwriting, first lien position on every deal, and a lender who's actually a real estate investor themselves. After six years and zero defaults, SteelPoint's model works because TJ and his partners won't lend on a deal they wouldn't take over if the borrower defaulted.

But there's a deeper story here about why discipline, transparency, and a belief in something bigger than yourself actually compounds into better business. This episode covers both the mechanics of deploying capital into hard money funds and the character required to do it with integrity.

Self storage has historically gotten a bad rep for being on the low end of real estate holdings, and while there are still more mom and pop highway storage facilities than ever, professional real estate investors recognize how partnering with operators in ground up self storage development present a bounty of opportunity for interested real estate investors. In this discussion, we cover the finer details and important questions to consider when rating this asset class against others

onsite with my good friend Arthur Hood.
What's happening, Arthur?

Not a lot. Good morning.

I appreciate you going to the extreme trouble that you've gone to to create this opportunity for you and I to speak to one another.

That was easy.
It was easy.
I already have the office, so
you know, we got the space. 
We've got the opportunity. And we definitely have
the topic today. But Arthur, before we
get into the topic, I want to frame the
conversation for you around this avatar
that we've created named Stuart. Stuart
is a character that we dreamt up to
represent the investors that are most
likely watching this program today. And
most of them listening have built some
wealth in the stock market, but they've
got capital gains. They definitely have
tax exposure. and they're starting to
ask a very basic, simple, but incredibly
important question. Where does my money
go next? So, today we're going to
explore an asset class that you are just
an absolute expert at, and it's quietly
outperformed like almost every other
real estate sector for decades. It's
self- storage. So, Arthur, man, like
you've structured more money in these
kinds of transactions than I can even
keep track of. Do you have you keep a
running total of
I I started to look at it one day. I
think just over between lifetime of
transactions probably just over a
billion dollars.
There you go. There you have it. So we
we'll just clarify that was a B billion
over a billion dollars.
Not a million.
So that's industries but yes.
So let me let me just ask you like so we
said right like this this group of
people they're sitting on a stack of
RSUs right they've got the opportunity
really to create some leverage from the
income that they've created that's
largely sitting dormant so
we've in the capital shift what we talk
about a lot is this idea of needing to
change the way you think so that you can
change the way that you invest. So from
your perspective when people are
starting to explore real estate as an
investment vehicle like what's the first
big mental shift that they need to make?
Uh the the the first big mental shift
anyone needs to make especially
switching to a real estate investment is
that it's not a true liquid investment.
There is a somewhat of a cost to get in,
cost to get out as far as selling trans
or selling a property, buying a
property, but long-term you're going to
get depreciation, the ability to use
leverage, which you really can't use in
the stock market unless we get into
leverage and a bunch of high risk
involved in that, right? So you can do those items is the
biggest shift is if you've got a million
dollars in stocks, if you want a million
dollars in cash, you can have a million
dollars in cash the next day wired to
your bank account by day two. You can't
really do that with real estate.
However, you can still get liquidity,
but you have to borrow against your real
estate. But then that's a that's a
tax-free transaction.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what
many of you are after. So, if that
catches your attention, you're going to
want to pay close attention to the rest
of what we're going to talk about today.
So, a lot of times, uh, Arthur Stewart
as a character, he's got a mental
construct that he needs to break down
before he or she can really make this
change that you're describing. So, what
do you think is the one big belief that
investors are stuck with that keeps them
rooted in the stock market and really
not considering what we're talking
about? I think the one of the things
that keeps people rooted in the stock
market is just the ease. It's click of a
button. They don't have to think or do
anything. Real estate seems complicated
from the outside if you've never done it
before. However, for me, I'm a lot more
comfortable with real estate. It's a
hard asset. I can touch it. I can feel
it. Um, regardless of what happens to
the US dollar, it will be paid for in
some form or some currency. So, if the
dollar was to ever just crash and burn,
real estate will trade in some form of a
currency, gold, it doesn't matter, but
it'll it'll maintain its value.
Amen. And if you haven't given
consideration to that thought, there's a
foundational aspect for you to really
spend some time thinking about uh
putting into your favorite AI engine to
really spend some time in self-discovery
around what this process might look for
you, but look like for you, but there's
definitely something to be had when it
comes to this. All right. So, myth is
busted, but let's talk about the actual
asset class of self- storage itself
because
I've I've watched some of your other
content, you have some really
interesting perspectives on self storage
as an asset class. So, when the listener
when the watcher first hears self
storage, for me, I can remember when we
first were considering this asset class
when you were talking about it and we
kind of wrote it off. It's like why
would that be an interesting or valuable
asset class? So for your perspective
like why does that reaction cause people
to miss that opportunity?
I think a lot of it's because when
people think of self storage they think
of the old rollup door
makeshift building on the side of the
highway in a small town, you know, 20
miles from where they live. They don't
really see the new generation 5 climate
controlled facilities that look like a a
medical warehouse. They're beautiful.
They're done very well. Concrete floors,
stainless steel in the walls,
everything's climate controlled. And
they also don't realize, you know, if
you live in an older home, um, you
probably have a fair amount of closet
space and some attic space, but if you
live in a newer home or an apartment,
the builders were never really
incentivized to provide a lot of space
they weren't going to get a premium for.
So, there really isn't that much storage
in a lot of new in new places. and and
people on, you know, in their 30s and
40s and younger and older all have
hobbies, whether it's hiking, kaying,
skiing, working out, whatever, bike
riding. So, everybody has things that
they don't have room to store at home
anymore, especially if they live in an
apartment or a smaller starter home.
They've got to have somewhere to store
their stuff.
Absolutely. And what we've noticed is
home ownership from firsttime home
buyers, it's taking them longer and
longer and longer to actually be able to
buy their first home. So, they've got
some more disposable income in many
instances because they haven't
necessarily found themselves pressured
into saving for a down payment just
purely out of belief that they're not
going to be able to be a homeowner.
Secondarily, we're starting to see a lot
of build directly to rent product that's
hitting the marketplace, which is just
going to be a continuation of what
you're talking about as far as the
builders not really being incentivized
to create storage space for the people
who are moving into that produc...

You know recurring revenue. You've sold it, pitched it, and fought for it every quarter. But what if you could own it?  

Triple Net Leases — known in the industry as NNN properties — are the commercial real estate equivalent of a contract that auto-renews, where the tenant handles the overhead and you collect the margin. No midnight maintenance calls. No chasing down repairs. Just predictable, long-term cash flow backed by national tenants with serious balance sheets.In this episode of The Capital Shift, NNN specialist Tom Rauen breaks down an asset class that most high earners have never considered — not because it's too complicated, but because nobody ever explained it in plain language.  If you've been stacking W-2 income and wondering how to make it work harder without adding another job to your plate, this conversation is for you. In this episode:

What a Triple Net Lease actually is — in plain English
Why the tenant pays taxes, insurance, and maintenance (and why they're okay with that)
How to evaluate a deal like an investor, not a landlord
The tenant creditworthiness question that separates good deals from great ones
What high-income earners get wrong when they first enter this space
🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell — new episodes drop regularly on The Capital Shift.

Show Notes:
which is the overarching premise of the
capital shift program, Tom Rowan, which
is this notion of as you are more
successful over the course of your
career, you have more resources than you
may have had when you first started. And
so consequently as your resources grow
and improve your thinking has to change
from being a capital accumulator to
being a capital deployer. As you are
going through that metamorphosis, you
actually are going through a bit of an
identity change in the process. So hence
the name the capital shift program. So
welcome Tom. Happy to have you.
>> Yes, glad to be here. So you want to
tell all the stewards out there a little
bit about Tom and your background and
how we found ourselves on this happy
program today?
>> Yeah, for sure. So I found it 1800
t-shirts 20 years ago right out of
college. And so that's been my primary
job as a a small business owner, as an
entrepreneur, uh growing that business
now to 40 employees and you know pretty
pretty full staff. And during that
process, as we were continuing to build
the business, we were running into a lot
of problems entrepreneurs have is um we
were making great money, but the tax man
would come knocking out the door. So, I
knew, you know, a lot of very wealthy
people use real estate as a vehicle to
create passive income. And the other
part was like as a business owner,
entrepreneur, like I wasn't sure what
retirement looked like, whether that was
an age or money amount or something. And
I wanted to have that diversification on
hand to you know kind of have a back
stop I I guess you could say but then
also to you know be earning some passive
income um you know besides that and
building some wealth in the background.
So we started investing in commercial
real estate primarily triple net lease
focused and so that is big names uh so
our tenants are like Starbucks and
Arby's and Applebee's and national
franchises with 10 to 25 year leases and
the reason we focus on that asset class
is because as like a full-time business
owner you know no different than someone
else that has a full-time job um I
didn't have the time uh to dedicate to
dealing with tenants and toilets and all
this other stuff. And I'm not like a
handy dude. So, I can't I'm I can fix
maybe a few things, but I'm not really.
So, I didn't want to like be fixing
stuff and having to like, you know, deal
with like I don't even like to fix stuff
around our own house, let alone somebody
else messing it up, right? So that's how
we found this asset class and it's
absolutely phenomenal asset class
because I truly believe it's the only
passive asset class that's out there.
The rest of them are actually a lot more
work. Um this is the only true one that
you can set it and forget it and you
know there's there's not all these other
things going on. So that's that's why we
love this asset class. It worked out
really well because we could build our
lifestyle around it, whether that's with
work or with family or traveling and
everything else. And as we look towards
the future of, you know, retirement and
things like that, this asset class still
offers all that freedom and flexibility.
>> Well, and unlike some of the other
operators and the other classes that
we've interviewed as a part of the
program, there's weights and balances.
you know, we're we're teaching the that
are consuming this product how to learn
the four different sort of measures that
someone who's making a real estate
investment is generally seeking. And you
know, the fun part, Tom, like in many
ways, you just described most of the
people who are going to be watching the
program because they don't have time for
another job, just like you didn't have
time for another job. They're already
doing a lot of work for the thing that
makes them the significant amount of
money that their jobs afford them. And
the idea of taking on a complete other
set of tasks seems like the worst
possible idea in the world of everything
to most of these people because they're
putting their heart and souls into what
they're doing, you know, in solving
problems for their clients. So the idea
of then having to take on this added
responsibility is just like okay so
you've clearly most likely gotten these
people's attention around like yeah that
sounds exactly right. So break it down a
little bit more about why you believe it
is truly passive like and and when we
say triple net like there may be people
who doesn't even know what the heck
we're talking about right so let's
unpack it a bit for folks who maybe are
a little uninitiated.
>> Yeah this this got me super excited when
you sent me this. So tax efficiency,
equity leverage, cash flow creation,
capital velocity.
>> Yes.
>> Now there's some other asset class where
you might get one or two of those,
>> right?
>> I'll tell you what, I don't know the
scoring system. Uh looks like a one,
two, or three.
>> Yeah,
>> we're scoring like fives on all those,
maybe even higher. Like off the charts.
Uh
>> all right. talk to the people like what
what what makes this so unique that the
scores would be so
>> here's here's the unique part and I
don't like I I kind of like to keep this
hush hush because um but I'm going to
let you guys in on a little secret. This
is truly the best asset class. And the
reason it's I call it a secret is
because most people don't realize you
can actually own these properties. You
will never see a for sale sign in front
of Starbucks or in front of McDonald's.
Right? you're driving down the street,
think of when you go to get coffee in
the morning or any of the hightra areas
in your city, you never see them for
sale. So, that's why they're actually
they're easy to get but hard to find
because people don't know some of the
inside tricks on getting these
offmarket. They're not listed with, you
know, traditional realtors and stuff
like that. And typically these are owned
by big private equity or big hedge funds
and stuff like that. But they're also
owned by investors just like you and me.
So what these properties look like when
I say passive and completely hands...

Debate rages about the cost v. value of a professional property management partner for your short term rental holdings. 

Fouad Bazzi weighed that decision for himself and his personal holdings, and decided the best strategy was to spin up a brand new business dedicated to supporting his own needs as an owner. 

The Owner Hosts were born shortly thereafter. 

Join us as Fouad talks about his view of the short term rental market, the common traps buyers fall for when jumping in the game, the biggest financial realities of STR ownership and how to keep up with constant changes in the marketplace.

This episode is not tax advice. It’s an educational discussion intended to clarify how mechanisms function, where assumptions often break down, and what tradeoffs deserve more attention before capital moves.

Bonus depreciation and the short-term rental tax classification are often discussed as powerful tools for reducing taxable income—but they’re rarely examined in the full context of how they influence real estate investment decisions.

In this episode of The Capital Shift, we walk through how bonus depreciation works, why short-term rentals are treated differently under the tax code, and where investors commonly misunderstand the requirements and consequences of using these strategies.

The conversation explores how tax efficiency can shape asset selection, operational complexity, and long-term outcomes—especially when the tax benefit becomes a primary driver of the decision.

With more than 6 years experience accumulating RSU's since joining Google Cloud in 2020, Melisa Burnett joins us for a discussion about her stock-grant strategy, how the laws of compounding worked in her favor and the vehicles she's leveraging in her current stock holdings for the sake of additional real estate assets