The Power of Community that Built a Billion-Dollar Network | Veena Jetti | EP 28

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What is happening? Hi, I'm so excited to do this. It's been so long that we've been planning.
Yeah. Finally, we're here.
If you do not know Miss Vina Jetty, you need to make sure you go follow her on all platforms. She's done over a billion dollars worth of real estate transactions in the multifamily space.
She's someone I look up to. She's coaching me even off camera about what I'm doing.
This is going to be a fun episode make sure you stay tuned for this whole episode so what is what is your handle on social media so everyone can find you vena jetty v-e-e-n-a-j-e-t-t-i super easy i love it yes so we're going to get to real estate but first let's talk about first class flights okay yes i have been what i thought the only voice to say everyone should be flying first class

if you are a business owner of any sort.

Yes.

And I have my reasons.

Yeah.

You obviously agree as I was just watching you were hanging out with a little famous

guy, a little Jeezy.

Yes.

Which was super cool.

So how did you meet him?

I was flying on a flight from, I was going from Vegas to Austin because I was speaking

at both of those events. And I normally, I hate hate the bulkhead seat do you like the bulkhead i hate it i don't like it i want to like put my stuff under the seat i want the second like flip down where i can put my tablet so i can be on my computer while i'm listening to whatever do people like bulkhead seats are there some people do some people are like i only want bulkhead i'm like i never want it i'm like a 2d kind of gal i'm in do you like aisle or do you like window aisle aisle all day and the reason i want aisle it's actually a little bit sinister okay i because rosie my mind you want to see people walking by you no no i don't care about that i what i want is i want to control the person next to me, whether they're going to get up or not.
So I like being in the aisle because I can force them to sit there and talk to me. And most people don't want to bother you to take a pee.
Right. So it's great.
This is like, I know, it's like so twisted, right? But that's why I want it because I want to maximize my time talking to the person next to me. Yeah.
And so, yeah, I was on a flight from Vegas to Austin, and I'm in the bulkhead. But I'm in the aisle, so I'm like, okay, whatever.
Sure. My life is really hard.
Yeah, right? This is way for a problem. I move so hard.
I know. This is like 1% of problems, really.
So I'm sitting there, and then my seatmate's not there. So I'm kind of panicking because I'm like oh my gosh i'm gonna be all by myself on this flight yeah all by myself with the other 180 people here yeah i still like be in my own thoughts and that's a scary place right so then right before the doors close this guy walks on and he sits down next to me i'm like oh good but he comes on with these like big headphones yeah do you know i'm talking about like those of course huge ones that like don't talk to me headphones yeah and i'm like oh it's not going down yeah yeah oh no it is going down it's just like you're like you're not getting away you're not getting what you think you're getting at yes so i like tap him on the shoulder and like excuse me and he's like he looks at me and i'm like you know like take your headphones off so he like takes one off he's like yeah i'm like so what's.
And he's like, he looks at me and I'm like, you know, like, take your headphones off. So he like takes one off.
He's like, yeah, I'm like, so what's your name? What do you do? I didn't know who he was. That's awesome.
And so I was like, what do you do? And he's like, oh, you know, I'm in entertainment. Like how people who are actually successful at the thing they do, they're like.
They're like low key. Yeah, they're low key because they don't have to be high key.
So we go, okay, okay amazing I'm a multi-family investor and this is what I do and then you know we just start talking and he we trade Instagram still does not click for me yeah I'm an idiot and so I'm like okay good job and then I was this tell me why I said this to a platinum artist yeah I go we're getting off the And I'm like okay what are your favorite songs of yours and he's like oh it's hard for me she's like just pick even give me three and he's like okay put on and um soul survivor and he's like I don't know about the third but those two are definitely my top favorite I was like oh okay I was like you know there was a song when I was in college with the same soul survivor and then it's like it was this guy akon and i i didn't say like akon featuring young jizzy but i was like it's it was by akon but is this so he's like yes that's and i'm like any of his like real name jay yeah he called himself jay yeah got it jay jenkins and so he's like i'm like okay yeah it was a song he's like yes and i'm like yes yeah and he's like yes and i was like oh okay this is too good i've been getting off the plate i was like oh i'll give you a stream

this man has like millions of streams a day yeah yeah yeah i'm gonna give you a stream and be your

friend uh but yeah that's it no that's how we met and we became like besties after i mean you

literally are backstage or something and like how do you take that conversation from an awkward

initial conversation i'm sure it rounded off well but like yeah then to like hey if you're in

Thank you. And like, how do you take that conversation from an awkward initial conversation? I'm sure it rounded off well, but like, yeah, then to like, hey, if you're in town, I want to come hang out.
I'll buy a ticket. Like, did he start inviting you? How does that go? So that after that flight, we you know, I would text him and he's interested in multifamily.
He's actually a really good real estate investor. And he has multi that he bought last year.
and I was like oh I'm happy to like look at it and give you feedback if you're interested you know not everyone wants my feedback which is fine too and so I offered to like look at it from he's like yeah absolutely that would be amazing I was like cool then we just like text every now and then like he um at the Super Bowl Usher performed this year yeah and so I was like, maybe they're going to bring him out because he's in that song in the club. Yeah, yeah.
And so, and I knew he was going to the Super Bowl because we both happened to be in LA at the same time. He invited me to come for brunch and I was like, okay, come hang out.
Yeah, went to brunch with him. And then he was like, I'm going to the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks.
I was weeks I was like okay cool I didn't you know I'm not used to thinking like oh maybe you're gonna perform at the Super Bowl right so I was like oh okay cool let me know you know how it goes I hope you have a great time whatever and then afterward so my securities attorney Nick McGrew who you maybe know um he's great if you don't I I'll introduce you. So Nick is at this brunch with me.
And after we left, he's like, Fina, do you think he's going to perform at the Super Bowl? I was like, no, I think Usher's performing. He's like, no, no, they have a song together.
I was like, oh, they do? He's like, yeah, in the club. I was like, oh, still hadn't put two and two together.
This is how slow I am. And I was like, maybe.
And then he didn't end up performing, he was there and i texted him i was like oh i'm you know bummed i thought i would see you performing but you know hope you're doing well and like we just things like that we kept talking and then he came into dallas for something i don't know what it was for and he was like hey i'm gonna be in your city let's meet and i said yeah let's be for dinner whatever um and his team like set up a dinner and we went to dinner I introduced him to my tax guy because he needs a tax guy and obviously my attorney because he needs a good securities attorney so four of us went to dinner and then he he texted me again saying he was performing in my city and he was like oh I want to come tell me like what the name of it is and you know I was going to get tickets because I always want to support my friends he's like no no just come with me and I was like okay cool this man has ruined every other concert for me for the rest of my life of course it was so good incredible yeah and he's just he's so in tune with his performance it's like when you see our friends that speak and they're just like great speakers it's because they're really in their zone and in their element and you know we we don't talk a lot about like industry stuff for him so i think he which he likes yeah he probably likes that we talk a lot about real estate which i like talking about um but we just talk about like business we do a lot of mindset discussion nice um Because he came from a very different background than I did. You know, he has a book called Adversity for Sale.
Awesome book. I enjoyed reading it.
It was a little weird because usually I listen to audiobooks when I'm getting a massage. And I was like, okay, this is weird because it feels like my friend is talking in my ear while I'm getting a massage.
But it was a great book. I jen gottlieb's book like that when i'm getting a massage i'm like all right this is just my thing now that's it yeah it's the so the power of first class i've always made the argument it's always about you never know who's gonna sit next to it's the same thing of like so i go to like lifetime gym it's like 350 a month this is exorbitantly expensive but the very first I joined, I talked to a developer here in Miami.
Who knows if we ever did, but like those are the people that you're going to sit next to. I talked to a very high, high up politician who now is in the state of Florida that like basically is like, hey, if you ever need anything, you call me and I can get anything done for you.
And it's because I'm just sitting next to him for three and a half hours. It's the hack.
It's it is literally a business hack. And it's a life hack.
If you treat it that way. It is.
But people don't see the value in making that investment. It's the same thing for your coaching program or my coaching program.
Right. Your coaching program is multi-fi.
Yeah. You're here because you're actually doing a really cool event.
Yes. Tomorrow.
Yeah. So this won't be available by her event.
But if she's running another event, you're interested in a really cool event yes tomorrow yeah uh so this won't be available by her event but if she's running another event you're interested in anything multi-family she is my go-to girl so if it's good enough for me it's damn sure good enough for you guys make sure you reach out to her yes um and i know multi-fi those events are you're having them periodically across the nation yes multi-fi everybody make sure you check it out what's the website uh multi-fi now. multify now.com so check that out check her out follow her for sure um but i think it's you know people get short armed i call like alligator arms like oh i don't know if i have the but again they'll go buy the watch they'll go buy the car they'll go buy the thing all the things and it's like yeah but you could change your life forever the trajectory of your entire family for the next you know hundred years and you have short arms with it but first class is just like a starting point country clubs high-end gyms yeah like these are things that you and i

believe in like just being there yep this is where powerful powerful people go is to these places and

you want to be around powerful people because you can i mean if making money is your goal that's

great. You can make a lot of money in those rooms.
But

Thank you. powerful people go is to these places and you want to be around powerful people because you can I mean if making money is your goal that's great you can make a lot of money in those rooms but for me it's impact right so I can make more impact when I have people around me who are also doing impactful things and yeah like I sat next to a lady on the plane on the way from Dallas to Kalispell she's an LB and her husband's an anesthesiologist.
And I still text with her to this day. And I meet a lot of people like that.
I met a guy who is an insurance and his son is a professional athlete and plays professional baseball. And so it's like, you know, all these interesting people, but I'm a people person.
I was just going to say the other component of this. Yeah, I am too.
I'll literally start the conversation. I have no problem.
Yes. Introverts are going to sit in the seat and you just spend, you know, whatever it is, a thousand dollars.
Okay. Well then that might not be the best investment because if you're not going to do anything with it, just like anything, then it's a waste.
Yeah. If you're not going to do anything with it, don't do it.
But I encourage you, even if you're just, if you're in coach and you're scared, start by talking to the people that you're sitting next to in coach like you have to start somewhere i'll tell you jay is a huge introvert yeah and so he did not want to talk to you no and you but here's the funny thing so i you know the first couple times we met i'm like okay maybe he just forgot that i told him i'm gonna like give him a stream or that i didn't know or any of this right like maybe he forgot it yeah so I'm like just avoiding that part of the conversation and then we go to dinner with uh Larry West and Nick McGrew my tax and my legal and they're like so what was it like when you first met Bina and she's like well let me tell you this story and he um he talks about it from his perspective which is really interesting he's like you know i have my big headphones on because i'm an introvert i was also tired he's like i went to the after party the after after party the after after party because we're in vegas right oh god and he's like i didn't want to talk to anyone i was like i'm gonna get like a nice two hour nap on the plane and he's like and i sit down and she's like excuse me take your headphones. He's like, in all my life, I've never had anyone get me to take my headphones off and then stay engaged in the conversation.
And he's like, and now when I get on flights, I'm like. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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Go to MizzeninMaine.com and use code POD20 to get 20% off your first purchase. Lou's sitting next to me and he'll introduce himself to the person sitting next to him because of our interaction.
And I'm like, that's so cool. And it's such a great idea because you don't know who you're sitting next to.
You don't know how it's going to change your life. Yesterday I was a little perturbed.
So I went into Houston. We were just talking about this.
I had this big medical test and I'm super healthy, which is phenomenal. But I believe everyone should do this.
And I'll talk more about this because I really believe in it. Right.
It's not cheap. Yeah.
No. Knowing that, you know, you're healthy and providing.
So the interesting thing about that is yesterday I was bummed out because on my way home, the guy was just obviously in a shitty mood. And I'm like, dude, I don't need that energy either.
I don't need to be dealing with someone who's going to be snarky. So I just didn't say anything.
But I was like, man, what if he was a fucking hedge fund man? Whatever, right? I sat next to one of those. And you're just like, I should have still said something.
But he just was like, I could feel the energy coming from him. And I'm like, I'm out on this one.
Yeah. I'll tell you, yesterday on my way into Miami, I did not speak to the lady next to me.
I was just, I'm like so exhausted from all my travel. I fell asleep, actually.
Which I normally never sleep on planes. It's hard for me.
And I fell asleep. To fall asleep? Yeah, me too.
It's never. That's another reason for me, first class, is like almost I have to because like six four and like yeah anyways so five four so i don't have this yes you probably have the same problem no not quite but um so if you take anything from this podcast fly first class yes and follow vena jenny talk to people yes um so let's get a little bit more into business because i think that was just fun for you and i talk about but you are a boss of bosses in my opinion you've built an incredible business for yourself you are someone I look up to in the real estate space and I've done this for 17 years there's not many people I would say that about thank you but you've done it in a way that I think everyone should be following because if I could have started over I would be more in your in alignment with your trajectory because of what you're able to do and how it all washes out versus what I did is I cared more about making a whole lot of money, which was fine.
And I did. I spent it all at the club.
It doesn't suck. But yes.
You know, the point being is my biggest mistake isn't the development play that I lost seven figures. It's not the quarter million dollar high end flip I lost on.
It's not, those aren't biggest mistakes. Actually, what you do so well, which is I never invested into the real estate law and held the real estate, whether it's a multifamily or single family.
Yeah. The first decade, I didn't do any of it.
Yeah. I just transactionally did real estate.
I hear this so much from wholesalers and flippers. They're like, I never own the real estate.
I'm like, yeah, that's why you pay a lot in taxes. And I don't because I actually own the real estate I'm like yeah that's why you pay a lot in taxes and I don't because I actually own the real estate so yes this is very common so if you are an entrepreneur of any level this is something you're going to want to hear because I I know this to be true and I know you do too that's why you do it but real estate's the only vehicle that I know that can create a massive income and that you can keep because of the tax not evasion but tax deferment efficiency i thought you said evasion yeah no not evasion efficiency i hate it when people say that they're like oh we can evade taxes i'm like you're not evading taxes you're just utilizing and leveraging the rules that are in existence so yeah so but it also creates the wealth accumulation which then gives you the ability to make more it all comes back to taxes because then you can go refi to put that money in your pocket yeah cat you know tax-free yeah but let's just talk about like i guess where someone could start if they aren't in real estate yet right and they're like okay justin you're saying vena did it the right way and you would have probably done it more like her yeah well then how would you encourage someone to kind of get into this game okay so it's funny that you say that because I think I did it the wrong way too because now I have more knowledge right so I can look back it's easier to connect the dots in hindsight than it is it's the only way to connect the dots really yeah so I actually think I did it the wrong way because I started so I started in the corporate world and I worked for some of the largest real estate companies in the world.
I left Tishman's Buyer who owned the Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Building at that time. And I had a $1.2 billion asset I was on the management team for.
And that year was the first year that my husband and I paid taxes as a married couple. and paid like almost two hundred thousand dollars in taxes which was at that time was about almost 50 percent of our income and I remember I called my mom and was like mom what just happened we just spent two hundred thousand dollars on taxes this is crazy we're never gonna get it back just like one welcome to adulthood yeah yeah

um but two you should quit your job and I was like what you know this is like a stable job you know we're Indian so what does your mom do she's a real estate investor and she always invested in single family yeah and she was like yeah quit your job and go invest in real estate And I was like, okay, seems legit.

And so I quit my job and started buying single family. Okay.
So we kind of have that start, the same. I just took it a little further longer.
Yeah, you just stayed there longer than I did. Yeah, I started in single family because that's all I knew.
And I thought that's where I had to start. That's a lower barrier of entry for most, right? I thought it was.
I really did until I do what I do now. And now what I realize is it's just a different kind of heart.
So you're going to be uncomfortable regardless of what you're doing. It's just, do you want to do this heart or this heart? And that's up to you to decide, right? And so I bought single families.
And the week that I put five under contract in a week, I was like, oh my gosh, I hate this so much. Because I'm like driving from like this place to that place.
I'm like calling my tenants. And I'm like, hey, we need rent.
And they're like, oh, but Miss Vina, I have to buy diapers for my baby. And I'm like, oh, okay, just skip it this month.
I was like the worst at it. She was like, I need someone to do this for me instead of me doing it.
Of course. And then I was like, oh, but I like residential because I like the idea of investing in communities in someone's home.
It's recession proof to some degree, right? And so I wanted to be in residential real estate. And I was like, but I can never own 50,000 doors if I buy five houses a week, even for the rest of my life it's doesn't scale 50 000 doors no i just i mean whatever number at that why isn't it um because i think because even if you get halfway there you're at 25 even if you get 20 there you're at 10 000 yes go for 50 i well it's not so much the number for me anymore like now I you know I made my money I'm yeah I'm

happy I'm content I'm proud of what I've accomplished but now the bigger goal for me is just impact and helping someone else's family change their trajectory is way more fruitful for me at this point than the dollars but I mean eventually I'll probably own 50 I'm gonna stop you there for a second because this is triggery for me yeah so the older you get in life you come to certain realizations so what you just said making impact on other people's family means so is more impactful to you than it is to how many more doors or how much more money yeah and that I get this question a lot Justin why do you coach like if you're such a good successful real estate investor why would you ever coach yeah and that is my answer and people don't a lot of times they don't even see that answer coming yeah because they're still so self-absorbed they're trying to just go make an extra couple bucks for themselves yeah and I'm like yeah but once you do that then it's not quite as fulfilling and you're alone on top of this mountain alone yes and no one's around with you and it's not that cool yeah and once you can make impact and bring people with you to the top of the mountain yes it helped them change their trajectory yes that's way fucking cooler uh so this is that's why you have to check out multi-fi wherever she is wherever in the country uh multi-finow.com and follow her yes because she's doing it for the right reason she's now gotten to a place where she's doing it to make impact on you guys not necessarily her anymore i did make way more money from doing my multi-family stuff than i do you don't have to yeah and so i don't have to i do it also because i looked for a community i actually thought i'd do it the easy way and i'd go and join someone else's community even and this was at like 700 million in so i'd already done enough and i was like oh let me go find a community because i really if you didn't hear a billion plus in real estate transactions everybody a billion plus i'm not at that mark yeah not yet not yet i will be not yet yes um yeah and so i i went and looked and then actually i see a lot of people that just teach it wrong like illegal strategies it's not ideal but that's why so many people in our space are getting crushed right now on the syndication side yeah oh yeah it's I mean it's very it's a thing right now concerning what's happening and um so I you know I looked I and it was 50 grand for one year and I was like I'll get a lot out of a year and if I spend 50 grand I'm getting five million out of it that's right spending that money without getting my money's worth but and I think that's how you have to think about these too is like okay if I spend 10 grand or 15 grand or 50 grand or a hundred thousand doesn't matter whatever it is you have to figure out how to extract 10x the value out of it but that's up to the person and maybe this is a cultural thing one of my best shining star members in recent years her name is rashika also indian ah there she came to me she lives in houston yeah she says i have five rental properties i'll make the investment in your program if you can 3x the return on the investment yeah this is how smart entrepreneurs think laughed at her. I said, if you do the work, why are you shooting yourself so short? You could 10X your investment.
She made over $300,000. She added five more rental properties.
And she still has a full-time job. Right.
But it's the person. It is.
It's all about the person. And I've learned that.
That's actually been a learning curve for me as I launched Multify. Because people like us, like us, we're very diligent entrepreneurs and we don't quit.
Right. And so and for me, I hate when I see potential unrealized.
It drives me up a wall. In real estate and in people.
Yes. Both.
They go hand in hand a lot of times. And what I would do is someone would come and they'd complain like, oh, I'm not getting anything out of it.
I'm like, great. Show me what you're doing and let me help you.
How many offers did you make? Oh, none. None.
How much of the videos did you watch? None. Right.
Or the opposite. I watched everything you have in 24 hours and it didn't teach me anything.
It took me over a decade to get this level of experience. And it took me months to record along with my experts like the people I pay yeah millions of dollars to for sure it took all of us months to record this and you watched it in 24 hours and got everything out of it right go back yeah no well and then do something about it execute yeah that's the thing so I I say this a lot of times there's three levels of fear there's the fear of taking action yes that stems from fear of failure fear of you know whatever yeah there's the fear of doing it alone yeah and then there's going to be the fear of um uh staying the same oh this episode brought to you by progressive insurance Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?

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Not available in all states. Mizzen in Maine is the pioneer of re-engineering classic American styles with performance fabrics.
All with the goal of making it easier for guys to achieve and enjoy their version of success. They're the brand you can turn to for a machine-washable and wrinkle-resistant dress shirt you can wear every day and high-stretch pants that are as comfortable in the office as they are on the golf course.
Go to MizzeninMaine.com and use code POD20 to get 20% off your first purchase. And that one is the one that should trigger.
Yeah, it's the worst one. Yeah.
For the right personality, that is what triggers them. Yes.
Because if they're going to stay the same, like I could never. I could never.
If I'm not growing and iterating, like I'm dead. Yeah, and this is something I actually, my mindset coach, Rosie, teaches about, and she does it in my master class.
Right, she'll tell you, look, you can stay the same. You can do nothing.
And that's going to be uncomfortable. Yeah.
Because you're not growing. You're going to see everyone around you growing.
You're going to know that you have more in you. Or you can be uncomfortable taking action and failing and growing.
They're both uncomfortable. Just choose your discomfort.
Just like choose the heart. Yeah, choose choose the hard you want that's it and being broke is hard and being rich is hard i know that doesn't sound right but there's problems that it's hard to get rich and it's easy to be broke but it's hard to be broke so yeah there's hard no matter what life is hard yeah let me let me transition a little bit um again if you are out there trying to figure out how to break into like an apartment yes oh yes maybe you have some money maybe you don't maybe you just want to get your first deal where do they start do they just need to find the deal first do they need to know how to analyze the deal first what are they what do you suggest they do i actually think it's not even anything real estate related the first two things three things first thing is show up okay you have to show up if you don't show up you're not going to be successful so forget about it if you're not willing to show up like we were just talking about events right and how a lot of events you sell 100 tickets and 50 people show up there's 50 people that have already told me they're not betting on their future they're not willing to do anything that's right that's uncomfortable they're not going to be successful that's right um the second thing is mindset because this is a mindset game being able to believe that you can do the thing is the first step you're you um this is something cody barton told me he said your growth will never outpace your personal development.
That's true. And I was like.
Very true. So true.
Because if you can't even imagine being a millionaire, how can you ever take any steps to get there? You know, it's another thing is people can imagine failure and the loss and all the other things. Yes.
But imagining being successful. The win is harder.
What that looks like. It's like they don't envision it't envision it they can't imagine it they don't but they can quickly imagine what if i lost 100 grand oh my god my life i couldn't pay my bills what if you made 100 grand but it's hard for them together and that's human psychology right like the psychology of money is humans are willing to go further yeah i just read it like a couple months ago when humans are willing to go further to avoid a loss than they are to get the same potential gain.
I know. And I don't think people like us do that.
Like you want to lose small. I want to win big.
That's right. There's a difference.
Yeah. And so I think when you change your mindset around that, it helps you show up and do the hard thing and lean into the hard thing.
Because I'm not special. You're not special.
Anybody can do this. Anybody.
If you're willing to put in the work, it's not easy, but it's worth it. Yeah.
And the third thing is actually the one that's the most powerful. It's finding community.
And it's not just any community. It's in a community that is in alignment because when you have a community that shows up in the same way in every setting it is like pouring rocket fuel on a spark yeah because now i'm not i actually just talked about it on a live on my instagram this morning i was at multiply live i hosted the event in atlanta and we had our private vip dinner where we do a q a yeah and this guy raises his hand and he goes, hey, I have a real estate problem I'd like help solving.
He said, great, tell us the problem. He goes, I have a building that someone gave me, not an inheritance.
He found the deal, probably through some of the methods you use, calls the owner and they're like, we just don't want it anymore. We'll sign it over to you.
He was like, okay. He takes it over and it's worth $5 million.
Okay. He goes, what's the catch? And they go, there's $18 million in back taxes that are owed on an asset that's worth $5 million.
They said, okay. So, you know, I ask follow-up questions do you have debt are there other investors you know we're asking all these questions and then i go okay here for my first instinct is you know call larry west he's your tax man he's the guy right so i was like i'll give you his contact info i'll put you in touch with him he's like okay thank you that's amazing i'm like but i'm gonna still keep thinking about it because is a new problem.
I've never had this happen. But I'm thinking with all the knowledge base I have of how I could solve that problem.
So I'm like thinking and I like come up with some sort of like half-baked strategy that wasn't quite there yet, but I knew it was a thought that was forming. And then the guy at his table right across from him raises his hand and goes, I have a solution.
I go, great, share it it and so he talks about and he's talking about like restructuring with a no and selling a no and getting the money back and then holding it forever because he has no investors in the deal so he can really just sit on because he has just basically assumed the ownership yeah he could um you know we talked about like how you could recap through a syndicated model there's so and so what happened in that room was then the guy next to that guy was like oh wait i have another idea and gave gave him a different strategy and by the time he walked out of that room he had four different strategies that he could use and we solved an 18 million dollar problem in the course of a 90 minute meal there's no doubt doubt. Because of community.
We were just talking about this

about our friend Pace.

I mean, he's really ingrained it.

The king of community, yeah.

He is.

And I give him all the credit.

I mean, he is the guy.

I mean, he's the reason that I do this.

That's right.

And there's nothing,

it's the doing it alone,

those three fears, right?

Doing it alone.

Yeah.

You have to have community, right?

So, and this goes back

to the first class conversation.

Part of that community

will lead you in a direction

that you didn't even know existed.

Yes.

Because the people in the community,

I'm going to go yeah I would love to um I met a guy there literally has changed it he's the reason why I went to Houston for this whole health thing is because I just met him there because of the community right um okay so do people need to have money to get into the apartment no no it's a big misconception. And I had that same misconception because when I started investing I was like, okay, well multifamily is for Jeff Bezos not for Vinod Jetty.
And then what I realized was, oh this is what OPM is. Other people's money, right? So I just bought, my last deal I bought was $131.5 million.

And it was in Phoenix.

And I needed $67 million, give or take a million. For the down?

For down payment, OPEX, fees, all the things, right?

Reserves.

$100 in?

Yeah, so we raised that money.

That's a big raise.

It was a big raise.

How long did that take you? A bajillion years i think we we finished in about eight or nine weeks so yeah it was a lot a lot of running yeah yeah it's like a straight sprint for eight that's impressive so yeah very impressive kudos thank you thank you yeah and we had to move that fast because we have a few million dollars on the line and we're like, we have no extensions. We have to close it.
Otherwise we lose that money. So we that was definitely a heavy lift for us, especially in this market.
It's tough. So how do you so when you buy that, did you fund it as a fund model syndication or did you do equity or is it a combination of both? We just did a syndicated equity fund.
So it was just one asset in the fund. We do have a multi-asset fund that we also use, which will have like six different or five different assets.

But this one specifically, the syndication, which is a fund, gets the ownership.

And depending upon how much the people, just for the people listening.

Yes.

How much you invest, you get the prorated ownership of that.

Yes.

And so distributions come from that.

If you have a sell-off, it comes from that.

Negative K1s come from that.

Negative K1s because it's ownership.

Yes.

So the reason why I'm saying this now,

this is for my own personal.

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm going down the path,

and I'd love to hear your feedback.

I'm actually going true ownership syndication

without the fund.

Okay, yeah.

Because my numbers are smaller right now.

What do you mean without the fund? They just own. smaller right now right so without the fund they just own so like a great example yeah okay so you're not syndicating it no we're not syndicating in the definition of like with a ppm and yeah like they're active partners they're investing for an equity percentage of ownership of the entity but they're active on the deal correct yeah there will be gps not lps yeah so you you don't have lps in your deal okay But yeah, that makes sense on smaller assets especially.
Yeah,'re active on the deal. Correct.
They will be GPs, not LPs. Yeah.
So you don't have LPs in your deal. Okay.
Yeah. And that makes sense on smaller assets, especially.
Yeah. I mean, you know, two of the deals, they're like, I think I bought one for like 250, but it needs 900.
Yeah. I bought one for 600.
It needs 600. So they're just smaller numbers.
I mean, 600,000, not 600 million, right? These are just smaller numbers. So for me, it makes a lot of sense.
and i actually really like it especially on the smaller numbers yeah it creates the community part like people love like wait a minute i'm gonna own this with you like legit my entity is gonna sit next to your entity on title paperwork and i'm like yeah i love that and and would you recommend it now i love it especially for the smaller numbers for, yes, as long as everyone's going to be active on the deal, right? Because there's something called the Howey test. I know I'm about to get really technical on securities laws, but this is important.
And this is something I don't hear people teaching about as much, and they really should. So there's something called the Howey test, which tells you, are you selling a security or not? and the parts to that how we test is is it and i like to use the term isis i c e s is it an investment of capital into a common enterprise with the expectation of a profit based off of someone else's hard work okay so if i have an investor that says here's a hundred thousand dollars go make me money and come back to me, give me 150 K or whatever that is.
Right. I'm not doing anything else.
That is selling a security. Right.
And so if we're selling a security, we have to either register with the SEC or we have to rely on an exemption. And that's where your PPM and everything comes into play.
We use the 506 C, Reg D 506 C exemption. But without that, then you're probably operating in a way that's not right aligned with securities rules and you want to stay within securities rules you want to have a healthy fear of any three-letter agency right yeah and so uh you don't want the sec knocking but you don't need to be an investor yourself to run a fund right so or you don't even have to be an investor yourself in your deal model either.
And so for smaller deals, yes, it makes sense because you have like four or five partners. Everyone can be actively involved in the deal.
That's very recent. And when you say active, the term of general partner versus limited partner, push them into the general partner format just for the people that may not yeah no so many terms exactly um and that eliminates the security selling of a security for me as i'm structuring the deal that way right yeah because they're active they make decisions they are actively involved so they're general partners for me my lps really don't get any decision making power because there'd be too many cooks in the kitchen and so yes i would keep doing that but i would tell you to stop playing so small i know this is what the big boys and big girls get to tell me you're not the first person yeah because you're wrong but by the way it's only because those are the only assets that have essentially come my way as a moment in time right because you're not looking for bigger looking for bigger assets.
When you start, I think you need to start saying,

I buy larger multifamily assets.

I do buy larger.

And so, yeah, there you go.

That's what you have to say.

And that's what you have to do, right?

So here's the reason why.

Making like a few hundred thousand,

a million bucks on like 30 units, great.

I would never knock anybody for doing that.

What I would encourage someone that wants to do that

to think about though is if you just partner up, let's say you find two partners, you could do like a hundred unit asset instead or 90 units, a hundred units. The problem that you solve by getting over 70 to 75 units is you solve your management problems.
So now at 75 doors, I can justify the cost of like a leasing manager or an onssite manager. I can justify the cost of a porter.
So now I don't have to manage that asset. And your property management becomes much more effective.

yeah the efficiencies scale efficiencies raise it but it is the same argument i make even where i'm at yeah when people are like oh you know i'm buying all these single families or a quadplex

or whatever like get to the point of going into 10 plus doors so you have a company as a scale. Yes.
You're just making the argument to me. Add another zero.
Right. I'm telling my people go from one door to 10 doors.
You're saying go from 10 to 100. Yes.
I'm with it. Or go from one to 100.
Well, we're going to do that together. Yes.
I love it. We'll have a couple of deals that we'll do together.
Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure of that.
Next 12 months. I'm sure of that.
We're going to add more zeros to your portfolio. Let's go.
I like it. That's what I'm all about.
I'm here for this. Yeah, me too.
Yeah. Okay.
So you don't need your own money. You don't need your own money.
Do you need to know how to raise money? Like what are some things if someone's like, this all sounds great, guys, but what the fuck can I go do right now? Yeah. Do I need to go lend my money? Do I need to raise money? Do I need to find the deal? What do I go do? Yes.
All of those things. All of it.
Any of those things. So this is like the same question people ask me.
They're like, should I get started in single family or multifamily? And I go, yes. And I'm like, that's the man.
Just get started. Just start.
It doesn't actually matter where you start. If you want to go to multifamily, you can start there.
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I made the mistake of starting in single family. If I could go back knowing what I know today, I would have skipped single family because it was a lot of heartache.
It was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into those deals. And like my best single family home, I made $57,000 on it.
On a flip or on a- No, I held it for like a year and a half. I bought it for $21,000 and I sold it for $78,000.
I collected rent along the way. So, okay, maybe I made like 60K on it.
Sure. My best multifamily that's gone full cycle so far, I bought it for $80 million, 494 doors.
And I sold it 18 months later for $110 million. So yeah, like 30 million over 18 months is not a bad day.
Right. And to be clear, and I don't know know this accurate but that didn't all go into your pocket no it didn't i'm sure i have no money yes i have no money you're buying people hear you say that yeah and they say oh she just made 30 million dollars like they think literally when your bank account in your pocket i wish i mean it could have right if i structured i'm sure you had partners or a bigger syndication.
I did. Had a good amount of that equity.
Yeah. So it was me and one other partner.
We co-GP'd and she and I have done like half a billion dollars of deals together. So we co-GP and we had investors in the deal.
We raised 29 million through, yeah, PREF equity and then high net worth investors. So what do you give her PREF? It depends.
So at that time, PREF was kind of unsure because it was like mid-COVID. Sure.
And I remember my partner called me up and she's like, hey, we have this deal in Atlanta and it's $80 million. And I was like, oh, this is the biggest deal I'd ever done at that point.
And the biggest deal I'd done before that was 52 million. So this is like significantly bigger.
And I'm like, it's the middle of COVID. We don't know if investors are going to invest.
Okay, yeah, we should definitely do this. And I'm like, we are bananas.
Like, why are we doing this? And it was the best decision I made to say yes, because it was the middle of COVID. We didn't know how investors or the market was going to react.
We didn't know if we were going into a bear market at that time out of this massive bull run we had had. And we sold at just the right moment.
I'll tell you, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. And we were lucky because the next month we re-underred it we would have lost

five million dollars in the purchase price because of cap rate okay not on the deal no five million we would have sold for like 105 instead of 110 probably did you have to go engineer architect growth or appreciation one owning it or just a simple lucky economy right time right place a couple of rigs. to add value there were 101 renovated units 393 classic so our plan was to take some of those classic units and bring them up sure we were going to do most of them and we ended up doing 41 and so there were 142 renovated doors when we sold it is It was 494 units, and the next group was going to go and value add, and we wanted to exit for 107 after doing all the renovations, and we exited at 110 after doing 41 of them.
Was it a smaller group? Was it a big, you know, black student type? Yeah, it was an institutional fund that bought it. Actually, it turns out it's my friend's dad's group that bought it i didn't know that's at the time yeah and so they it was bridge bought it oh really from us yeah no kidding yeah um i'm wondering if they like you still but i think so i still see them so i think because it does have a lot of value add retention yeah there's some but they're gonna have to wiggle for a little while they're gonna have to wait for a bit because you know but they assumed the debt it was a fixed freddy loan so let's talk about debt who who in your world goes and gets the financing uh so we we do it all in-house we have different lenders that we work with and so but who signs on the deadline oh we do yeah yeah so my co-gp and myself we usually sign on it if it's something that we can sign on like 150 million or something like that we maybe need a little more because the liquidity is always the problem worse they want to yeah yeah we never have the liquidity net worth is not the issue it's the liquidity that's right we never have any money that's why i said you have to buy me lunch today it's um people think we're joking the more money in real estate it's like sometimes like where the fuck how come i like my bank account looks like this right yes yeah it's a thing yeah no i because we're investors i cannot stand having money in my account i don't like it i genuinely gives me anxiety because i'm like oh my gosh i think of them like my employees i'm like my employees are sitting here doing nothing get to work and that's way to look i send it out yeah i send money out i get money in it stays in my account for 48 hours and it goes back out the door into something yeah it's got to go somewhere and so that's why i'm like always in this perpetual state of cash poorness and so we bring in a family office to come and backstop yeah do they have to do they not have to do you give them give them equity? Do they ask? Yeah, they get equity in the deal.
Very, very, very minimal amount. They get equity.
But they're taking the risk. They're signing on the dotted line.
Yeah, they're signing on the dotted line. I think we're the only group that they sign for.
They don't work with anyone else. So we just have really good relationships.
Is that just a relationship play? Yes, always. Back to relationships.
It always is. I will do more real estate because of this podcast with you.
Oh, yeah. Than not.
And it's always relationships. And so.
Yeah. And this is why I'm encouraging you to start your podcast.
I know. But.
We'll see. You got to commit to it.
I know. Right.
And then. So listen, I'll give you the two laws of success out of the five.
Okay. Decide what you want and who you need to be to get what you want.
Okay. And then commit.
So if you want the podcast to be a raising money thing, if it's just a network thing, decide what you want and who you need to be. And then just commit to it.
Just do it. I told you it took me 10 years to find a way to get what I've now built.
Yeah. But it's 10 years of nothing.
And finally I can say. You did it.
You're successful. You made it.
I made it. Right.
You know what I always tell people when they're like, oh my gosh, but you've done all this stuff. I'm like, yeah, it only took me 10 years to be an overnight success.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's real. That's how it works.
I mean, people don't realize all of the hours and the reps and the failure and the heartache that goes in before they see the successful part and then they think oh but it was so easy for you yeah i cried myself to sleep many nights many nights would you do entrepreneurship and real estate investing all over again if you had to yes even the stresses the stresses, even the challenges, even all that kind of stuff. So I think people undervalue, I guess none of us talk enough about being an entrepreneur and being a real estate investor.
It's hard. It's not easy.
Instagram makes us look awesome. Yeah, it's a highlight reel.
Awesome. Like this stuff I'm dealing with contractors right now.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm like, why am I doing this to myself? I know.
I'm in pain for you. Yeah.
Because it's so, I've been there. Yeah.
It's just, it's a pain. We all have.
Yeah. So I, everyone needs to be in real estate.
There's not a human on this planet that I think should not be. I agree.
Whether you're an investor in Venus Fund, whether you're partnering with her on a deal, whether you, whatever the case is, find a way to be in Venus world. Uh, and we could do this for hours.
Yeah. And my next question probably would take us an hour to talk about.
Oh, okay. So maybe we're going to do around two of this.
Okay. Yeah, let's do it.
Maximize. Let's maximize this.
Do it. Um, your handle Vena jetty.
Yes. We have multi-fi now.com.
Yes. You have events across the nation teaching this.
Yes. You are going to be my leader, my coach, my director, my business partner.
It'd be great. I love it.
So if it's good enough for me, it's damn sure good enough for you. She is an absolute boss.
She's so genuine. It's been a pleasure to have you on.
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.
You're very welcome. Appreciate it.
All right, guys, that is it for this episode. Make sure you are following her.
We are going to be back with another incredible guest. I will see you there.
And this made impact on you in any way. Make sure you share with Elise to your friends.
I'd greatly appreciate it. Peace out.
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