092. Investing in Yourself First with Dr. Olayinka Holt

Connect with the host:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-e-jenkins/

Website: https://www.birchprosper.com/

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About the guest:

Olayinka Holt, MD is a physician and an adept real estate investor.  She is the CEO and Key Principal of ProMerit Capital, a private equity firm with the goal of being vertically integrated. She began her Real Estate investment journey in 2016 in her home country with land acquisition, ownership, construction, and operation of a 16-unit apartment portfolio. Dr. Holt is passively invested in several class A and B multi-family syndications across various states with 2000+ units combined.  She advanced her journey by enrolling in several masterminds, real estate bootcamps, memberships, and mentorship programs including the Grant Cardone Real Estate Club. Dr. Holt is an author and recently launched 2 books (The Walk and Powerful Immigrant Females Vol 2). She is also a great mother of 3 beautiful and successful children.

Connect with Dr. Olayinka Holt:

Website: connect.promeritcapital.com

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/dr-yinka-holt-a13a51257

Episode Highlights:

✔️ Lessons learned from alternative investments

✔️ Seeking out education and mentorship

✔️ Managing a deal from abroad

✔️ Understanding property classification

✔️ The benefits of being vertically integration

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey, are you struggling to move to the next level as a real estate investor? Or are you interested in building wealth through real estate, but you don't really know where to start? We've all been there. You have to start somewhere, but you don't have to start by yourself. I think it's vitally important to find a group of people who have achieved the goals you want to achieve and who can partner with you to help you get where they are. Our guest for today is Dr. Yinka Holt. She's the CEO and key principal of ProMerit Capital, and her journey is fascinating because she's experienced a step change in her performance and in her finances each time she sought out coaching and mentorship groups, then took action on what she learned. So stay tuned because she's going to share her insights with you on how to scale your portfolio, but more importantly, how you can directly benefit from plugging into an ecosystem of like-minded investors. I'm here to help you grow, and so is Dr. Holt. Here she is from ProMerit Capital. Are you tired of watching your investments sit idle earning little to no returns? Do you wish there was a better way to invest your money and achieve your financial goals? At Birch Prosper, we understand the frustration of passive investors who want to grow their wealth but don't have the time or expertise to manage their own investments. That's why we offer a winning solution that allows you to passively invest in our highly profitable multifamily properties without the hassle of managing the day-to-day operations. Our proven investment strategy and experience team have a track record of delivering consistent returns to our investors year after year. Every proper we find, analyze, acquire, and operate multifamily assets to generate attractive returns for our investors. We focused on establishing lasting relationships with local brokers to get access to the top listings of stabilized assets. Then we add value through efficient management and capital projects to improve the community. The end result is a true win-win, a more functional and enjoyable home for our tenants, and safe asymmetrical returns for our valued clients and investors. Our unique approach to focusing on the data and the fundamentals allows us to stay focused on the goal even in times of uncertainty. We mitigate risks through a detailed scenario analysis process, which allows us to anticipate potential shifts in the market, prepare a winning strategy, and execute the mission to reposition properties in some of the most desirable high-growth markets in the country. So go ahead and check out our website at virtuprosper.com. That's B-I-R-T-H, P-R-O-S-P-E-R dot com. There's a link on the main page to schedule a call, or you can send us an email that's on the site as well. So if you're ready to take control of your financial future and invest in a winning solution, contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your financial goals. What would you do if you had the freedom to pursue the things you enjoy the most? How incredible would it feel to have the resources to pursue your passions fully and live life on your terms? This is Brandon Jenkins, host of the Capital Stack Podcast and principal of Birch Prosper. You might have heard that 90% of the world's wealthiest people attribute their wealth to real estate investing. Well, guess what? It's true. Investing in real property continues to be the greatest generator of wealth all over the world. So join us each week on the Capital Stack Podcast to hear about how commercial real estate group investment opportunities can help you reach true financial freedom and give you your time back. Hello everyone, what's up, and welcome back to the Capital Stack. I'm your host, Brandon Jenkins. And one of the things that we talk about on this show, as you're well aware, is having a vision for where you want your firm, your company to go if you are on the active side of the business and having a strong vision and a driver around how you want to organize your infrastructure in order to facilitate that growth. And so we have someone today who's done just that, and we'll talk a bit about kind of her mission and her uh vision. But our guest for today is Dr. Holt. How are you doing, Dr. Holt?

SPEAKER_02 4:30

I'm good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

All right, good, good to have you. So Dr. Holt is a physician and an accomplished real estate investor with over 2,000 multifamily units in her portfolio. So very impressive. She's the CEO and key and key principal, excuse me, of ProMarried Capital, a private equity firm with goals of growing into a vertically integrated multifamily operator of sub-institutional size assets. So we'll talk about what that means and um what why being a vertically integrated operator operator, excuse me, um is very, very powerful. And it's something that can help you control costs and leverage uh synergies across your divisions and your firm and so forth. Dr. Holt leveraged coaching and mentorship programs to scale from a 16-unit portfolio to now having over $20 million in assets under management. So a lot to discuss here. Um, you know, one of the things that I talk about a lot on the show is the benefit of coaching mentorship. And so we'll talk about that as well. So, with that, welcome to the show, Dr. Holt. Um, very happy to have you here. Why don't you share a little bit about your journey and your your background with us?

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Thanks, Jenkins. Um, thank you for having me on this show. So um I'm a nephrologist uh by profession, and um I started my journey in medicine when I got to the United States. I'm an immigrant from Nigeria, and um I did not start off being a physician from Nigeria, I did my medicine while I was here. But soon after I completed my medicine, I realized that the grass is not as green as I thought it was gonna be. So I came out with a huge debt from medical school loan. And then, you know, um with no guidance per se in how to manage our finances coming out of medical school, I didn't know any better. I the next thing I did was I put another debt of a home on top of the debt that I have as a medical, you know, as uh for medical school loan. So now I'm looking at everything, I'm like almost $750,000 in debt. And I'm going, my salary is only $275,000 a year. Now, even with that, even if I was to pay everything with out of my salary without using any money for myself, it would take me so many years before I can finish paying that money. Not to talk of the taxes that I'm supposed to be paying every year. So I started thinking of ways to make ends meet, per se, and also to create some kind of reserve for myself and furthermore, the financial freedom because I realized I had no life. I mean, I was always running, and because I was also a single parent, that fear of not knowing what tomorrow holds. If I don't work, I don't get anything, was everything that was driving me. So I just kept on looking for ways that I can make ends meet. So I realized that back home, some of the very wealthy people, back home in Nigeria is what I mean. Some of the very wealthy people are these old men that own flats and apartments and everything. So I started thinking, how is it that people who didn't even go to school but they own all these apartment buildings, they were able to start, you know, to be extremely wealthy. There must be something in real estate that I don't know about, and so I started digging deep into that. But you know, without the knowledge, you nobody can go anywhere with real estate. So the first thing I did was I started listening to podcasts, I started listening on YouTube. Um, then I joined the first uh membership that I joined was called the Big Dogs, and what they do was fix and flip. I mean, well, not fix, sorry. Uh they do um like um wholesaling, okay? Wholesaling of real estate, so they will buy low and then sell a little bit higher, put their own profit on top of it, but that market was so saturated that you have to make almost two to three thousand calls in order to even get one good uh person that is gonna sell to you. So, with my busy schedule as a physician, it's a no-brainer that I'm never gonna succeed in that area. Where am I gonna have the time in the world to be doing all that all those calls? So I I initially I also did um like a virtual assistant making those calls for me, but you still have to follow through, you have to follow up. So that was not working, but the knowledge was not lost, so I started building up on that knowledge from there, and then I joined another membership. Um I listened to Quest Trust and they talked about self-directed IRA. I'm like, hmm, okay, that sounds interesting. And some of the other lectures that they were giving every week, I was attending like religiously every Saturday, all the lectures that they have, all the webinars, seminars that they have, I always attend. And so I I heard about another one called the Notes Cope, where you buy notes um at a discount, and by that time you you know you are the bank for the for those properties. So I'm like, hmm, okay, that this sounds interesting. I'll love to be the bank. But before I actually uh because those memberships are not cheap, they range anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000. So if you don't even have anything to to to to start with, now they give you payment plans, which makes it a little bit easier, the barrier of entry, not so bad, but still, if I'm not a high-neck what individual, I don't know how anybody can save up that kind of money to even join those memberships. Yeah, so I said, okay, I'm gonna put that on hold first. I saved up enough money and I bought a land in my home country in Nigeria. I'm gonna test out this real estate thing that all these old men were doing. So I bought the land, acquisitions, you know, grounds up acquisition, got a contractor, got a uh um architect, and we did it from grounds up, built 16 units. Beautiful. Ah, but that was a lot of money, you know. Plus, if you think about the exchange rate, sending the money from here to over there, and then if the property makes money over there, now you want to transfer the money back here, the exchange rate is gonna kill every profit that you're gonna have on it. So I quickly realized that that was a big mistake, too. I could have just put all that money in the United States so that you know, whatever little money I'm making, I can I can sustain it. Okay, so lessons learned. And the next thing I did was join the note school. So I bought a few notes, and that was mailbox money, little, little money coming in my mailbox, you know. I'm like, oh, this is cool. Then I went into um another webinar, and there I found oil and gas. I'm like, okay, wow, this is cool. But you see, with the oil and gas, you only own the mineral rights, so it's not as if you're the operator doing it, uh, it's still a kind of passive investing, but there's nothing wrong with a passive investing, especially as a busy physician, you needed those, you know, uh passive investing. That's probably the only way a busy physician can actually uh survive. But um, because I'm in my own business, I have my own practice and everything, I can structure my own timing. So I delve more into the learning of the real estate investing, and that's how I joined um another membership uh called the uh the Grand Cardone Real Estate Investing Club. That was beautiful, that was awesome. That was an eye-opener.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah, it's a good group for sure.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Very, very good group. Before I did that, when I was transitioning to the real estate in the United States, I listened to Bigger Pockets, you know, that's another uh membership. Bigger pockets, buy duplexes, you know, live in one, you know, it's called households. Yes, rent out the other one. So I did that, but you see, the mistake is what I made is I bought those properties not where I'm living, so now I have to pay property manager to manage it over there. There's only so much you can scale with the duplex, you can increase rent more than how much it is in the market, it's only two units. So by the time the real estate uh the property management takes about seven, I mean seven to ten percent. Actually, it's mostly 10% of whatever is coming in. There's very little left. Plus, you still have to pay for all the expenses of the or you know, like repairs and maintenance and everything. So I'm like, this is not working. You know, I don't know how uh bigger pockets say if you buy, then take the profit from there, buy another duplex next year. How many years is it gonna take me to get to where I need to be? So I said, no, there has to be another way to do this massively and be able to scale it. So that's how I joined the Grand Cardone Um real estate club. And oh my god, I realize I've been doing it all wrong. So the the the the take home on this is find a very good mentorship where you can learn the art of real estate investing, invest the money in yourself first for that learning so that you will not go wrong. I can't tell you how much I've been able to scale within one year of joining that real estate club. Now, before I joined the club, remember I said I was investing passively, so that's how I amassed the 2,000 and something units as a limited partner. So somebody has uh 500 units here, I invest 100,000 there. Somebody has uh 200 units, I invest 50,000 there. So that's what I did. So after the knowledge from real estate from the Grand Cardone, now I know that I can get on the operating side of things. I formed my own LLC, which is the pro merit capital, got um into some other um close mentorships so that we can start to do the operating by ourselves. So now I'm operating as a general partner. Um, I'm in about three deals right now. The first one is uh 63 units um in Dallas, where uh that that property is um um uh very I can call it the cash flow, uh cash cow. Cash cow cash cow because it has a lot of upside when we got it. Um so that that one is um we're closing on that very soon. There's another one that I we just um started uh one 120 units in Pennsylvania. That started as a student housing, but now we're making it into a yes, hybrid of um student housing and multifamily, and that's also closing in about a month. And the third one is also in Dallas, another 320 units that is likely going to close by the end of this month or maybe next week. So very nice. It's it's a very um I I won't say it's a very tortuous journey, but it's worth every penny spent and all the time spent in getting there.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Wow. That listen, well, so that so there's a lot to to cover in that. Um I've been kind of taking notes here, and um I I did want to pull out some of the principles that I think are sort of uh underscore or or underpin a lot of what's going on there. And so the first one is um I have to applaud you because you you've taken action on a number of different strategies, and it and in hearing your your story, and first of all, thank you for sharing your story, your story. Um it sounds as if you you sought out education and mentorship in the majority of those cases before you took action, which I think is incredible. Um, you know, because first of all, you know, many of us we we hear about different strategies and we sort of entertain it, but then we we you know don't take the extra step to seek out education, mentorship, so we never do it. And so um, and even you know, more you might have some people who actually do seek out education andor mentorship, and they still don't commit to doing it. So the fact that you've done notes, you've done wholesaling, single family, land, and multifamily, and you've um you've tested them out to see which one you really suits you, I think it's powerful. So that's the first thing is is the power of mentorship, and we can talk about that. The other thing, though, that for me actually really stands out is um, you know, there are people who believe that you can't buy out of state. I'm personally, I'm not one of those people. I think that you, if you have the system set up, then you most certainly can buy um at a distance. But you've not only bought you know out of state, you bought out of country. And so I wanted to talk about that. So let's uh the first question is are the principles the same? So we're you know, just um in terms of the mechanics for real estate. So you bought the land, you did a full, you did a development, 16 unit ground up. Are the have you have you found that the principles are the same in terms of the getting the business done um when you're operating where the deal is out of the out of the country?

SPEAKER_03 18:41

It is essentially the same because you still have to get um you know so many um legal stuff that needs to be taken care of. You have to get the permits and all those things. You go to the lands and housing, uh, you know, same thing here. You know, you have to the developers have to get a lot of uh permits before they can do the you know the building. So it's essentially the same. They have to sit out, uh seek out the loan if they don't have the money to develop it, or seek out investors, it's the same thing. The only difference in my country is that that part of support for getting loans and stuff is not as strong as it is in the United States. I had to come up with all that money up front, and I'm talking about 500,000 US dollars is what I sank in there to do all that property um development. So in in in developing countries, the assistance is not there as much as it is here. That's why I think the barrier of entry here is a little bit easier, even though people still think it's it's really tight that you can't get in, but it's a lot easier here than in in um other countries.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

And you were let's see, you were here at the at the time though, right? So what out of curiosity, what what um what went into kind of the initial rationale behind buying there versus uh attempting it here? I'm sorry, go ahead. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

So um I had um people that we call boots on the ground, they sort out the land for me. When they uh finalized the talks between the seller and technically me, I flew down there to go and execute the the sale and everything, and then I came back. But before I came back, I got the architect drawings set up, I got the contractor set up, I got everything set up so that what else is uh the other the uh next thing would be funding it. So everything was already in place by the time I came back, and so we just you know, everything took about a year to to build that, so which was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Well, that yeah, that that's really impressive with me. So, you know, and and that's a that's something to highlight for the listeners is that so you not only had sort of a system in place because you knew exactly how you were going to execute, but you had people, you had boots on the ground that you could reach out to to say, hey, listen, I need you to, you know, take care of this and that.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

And so now I um out of curiosity though, so did you have kind of a one focal point that would that you would say, hey, I need these things done, or you were you actually managing kind of that team directly or you know, so so everything has a timeline, and for whatever reason, if they're not able to meet that timeline, they better be accountable to me because it you know, when when you when you have a plan, the business plan has to go accordingly. Now, I know that there may be some you know hitch here and there, but it has to be minimal. So the business plan has to be very well executed, it has to be well planned first, well thought out, well planned, and you make make sure that your team is in alignment with it. Because there's nothing bad as you have a goal, but you have a team that is not aligned with you. That that I mean that project will not will not come to will not uh come to work. So um so that's that's kind of where that was.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

No, that that's like I said, that to me that's just um absolutely incredible. Um so so um no good. Okay, so so then now kind of fast forward in just a little bit. Um so you joined the uh the Cardone, uh the Cardone's program, and what what maybe triggered, because you already, I mean, well on the path of, you know, you were already an action taker, you already had really good trajectory and upward um direction um going for you. What what what maybe did you see that that caused you to say, you know what I'm doing? Because you you mentioned in in your um uh discussion there that you kind of realized that you you were going about it the wrong way. What did you see that that made you uh come to that conclusion?

SPEAKER_03 22:58

So when I said I realize I've I've been doing it the wrong way, is the fact that it's not that easy to scale single family or duplexes as fast as you can scale multifamily. Grand Cardone did one math for us that brought everything home to me. He said, if you're not able to make a million with your first deal, that deal is not worth doing. And how you're gonna make a million in your first deal is you must have a minimum of 16 units. Think about it. 16 units if you increase rent by $100 per month, 100 multiplied by 16 multiply by 12, you've improved the value of that property by that amount divided by the cap rate, meaning if you would buy that property with cash. So if you're able to improve the value of the property by about a million, then you know you're in good business. That's what I meant by oh my god, the light just went off in my head, like ding ding ding.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

I didn't really wrong.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

So this is this is the formula that needs to be in place when you're thinking about multifamily investment. But think you think about it. If I hadn't invested in that education, even I didn't see that on YouTube or anything. But when I invested in that and I listened to all his lectures, and he actually analyzes deals. We have calls where people bring their deals and he analyzes and he tells them, you're not gonna make money on this deal. And if you go ahead with this deal, you're gonna lose money on it. And it sure happened. It's because of years of experience that he's been doing it. That years of experience is what people pay for when they join those kinds of membership and mentorships, plus the mindset, like you said earlier, some people, even if they go through the education, they don't take action. The mindset also has to change. You have to have that mindset of you want to succeed, and you need to make that drive you, that success, that fear of what you don't want to be, has to be the motivating drive to make you do what you need to do to be successful.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Absolutely. You know, listen, I so one thing that I always share with people is um, you know, because there are a lot of people who think that all education and mentorship and coaching should be free and none of it should be paid. And I always tell people, listen, you know, um, you can find information for free for sure. The information is not the reason you join a coaching program or mentorship program. You join it because of the accountability, the experience, you know, being around people who are like-minded, being around people who are committed. I mean, because they're time, you know, look with a lot of the free information that's out there in the groups that sort of um have formed around solely free information, you'll find people that come in and out all the time, and you'll and you'll find people who actually don't commit. But once you have people who have that commitment to say, I'm doing this and I'm gonna um, you know, follow this through, which you tend to find in you know, good mentorship programs and in good coaching programs, effective ones, um, then it takes you to another level. That's been my experience, and I and I believe it's the same with the uh with the Cardone group. So um, you know, but you you also touched on something that is is important for the listeners to understand. And what you were talking about there is forced appreciation. You know, I've always share that people, you know, that that's kind of the secret sauce really behind this business, is that you can um you can force appreciation and it's not speculative. It's not, you know, what you're doing is saying that here I have these uh properties that are in the market, there's similar vintage, there's similar type of property, similar unit count or whatever it is. And um, I looked at the interiors and the exteriors and the amenities at these properties, and they are they command or they can uh uh they have these types of rents, and these rents are higher than my current rent. And so I'm gonna, you know, uh sort of uh copy that that uh interior and exterior or upgrade my property so that I can achieve those rents. And so um, you know, I just want to share that with people because sometimes, you know, forced appreciation is not the same as anticipating market appreciation, right? Because banking on that is speculative, but going in and saying that we're gonna build this because we see what the market, um, what you can get in the market, you know, for a better product. Now that's that's a different thing. And that's what's beautiful about um commercial real estate, multifamily uh properties, you know.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

So but you see, the thing is um uh if you don't have the education, you won't even know how to go about doing the market analysis or doing all those rent stocks uh to see, okay, this is what my neighbor is charging, this is what my neighbor is charging. Why is this property different from mine? What do they have in there that's commanding more uh you know more rental income? The knowledge has to be there to be able to even think like that and be able to operate that the same way.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Yeah, yeah, I believe so. And I think I think you the the way you phrased it earlier is correct as well, right? It's because of the years of experience that will get people there. It's um, you know, because I think that in other environments, if you tell someone, hey, you know, I'm gonna go into this deal and I'm not gonna, you know, uh close the deal, I'm not gonna, or I'm only gonna find deals where I can uh increase appreciation by a million bucks minimum, you know. And if you say that to people who are just kind of out here in general, not really in a committed group, the the might laugh at you, they might kind of look at you and think, oh, you're not gonna increase it by a million dollars. Because it because a lot of them are sort of there's this, there's this uh skepticism, I think, that that is really common among, and this is this is whether it's in a free group or not, but they're but we are by nature skeptical and fearful. And so by being around people who have turned that on its head and who have um said that I'm my motivation, my drive is to continue growing and to surround myself with people who are where I want to be, they're not gonna laugh at that. They're gonna say, Oh, wow, what would it maybe you can boost it by two or three million in that you know, maybe you can you know increase your net operating income and increase the value of the property by a substantial amount. Um, so I I just think that's something that is very powerful, is being around people who are doing it, who have had great success with it. And um, yeah, I just you know, I I love that. I think that that's one of the key themes to to what your your growth um has been. And so, all right, so so let's see. So so right now, so you've got the it was it three deals that are closing now, I believe, right? Or two deals or three deals as a GP.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Well two that we're actually marketing right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Yes. That we're seeking we're seeking um investors for.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Okay. And so, and so have you um have you sort of like your your criteria now, because it sounds like it's really starting to get really refined as well. Um, and so have you found that kind of through the group and over time you've been able to kind of nail down um the types of product that you're looking for, or or does it depend on the market?

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Yes, no, we don't just depend on the market. And um, I also attended another uh boot camp, the Rodcliffe boot camp.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

That's another powerful boot camp that it just explains everything for you so that you don't make the same mistake that he has made when looking for properties. Um so you start first by doing the market analysis, you want to look at a good neighborhood. You don't want to go to a rundown neighborhood where you're gonna be chasing your your your uh residents down with a gun, or you have to go with a gun to make sure you protect yourself. Yeah, that's that's that's not a neighborhood you want to be in. And that so those those um real estate properties and the neighborhoods are classified. See, all of that I didn't know that there's classifications of the neighborhoods, or even classifications of the properties themselves. So the categories range from A to E, with the A being the top-notch, which we uh grant I don't call the trophy assets or trophy neighborhoods, and then the E, which is a rundown neighborhood. So D and E you you want to stay away from because not only are you not gonna make money from there, you might even lose money from them. Somebody might start cooking uh methamphetamine in there and burn down the house for your property. So those are the kind of things that if you don't go through all this training, you're never gonna know how to look at those neighborhoods or how to pick out a property. Then I I talk about the different classes of properties. So class A, class B, class C, um based on one, the neighborhood, two, the amenities in there, three, uh the year that they are built, and uh and the affluence around there. That's how those those uh properties are classified. So class A properties are properties that are anywhere you know from new to about 10 years old. Class B properties will be you know 10 to 20 years old, and then maybe class C will be about 20 to 30 years old. Um so and and also the the neighborhood counts as well when you're looking at those properties. So for my group, we've pretty much nailed it down to class B, class C. If we get some class A's, yes, we will, you know, for good price, we will do it. But the first appreciation that I just described a little while ago, most of the time is achievable when you have a class B or Class A property. Uh, those are properties that have been built for some time, but you can go in there and improve it and make it more modern to what people are liking these days. Uh the residents are liking these days, and that's where you can actually make a good impact in not only in the in the property itself, but also in the lives of the residents that are living there. Because if you make the residents happy, there you'll be you'll be happy, you'll be profitable yourself.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Absolutely, absolutely. They're the customer, you know. I always tell people that it's like this is one the good thing about this business is you can create sort of this win all the way around, where it's you know, you you get to win, you may make an impact on yourself, your family, you get to make an impact on investors and their families, you get to make an impact on your your customers, your tenants, um, and the community. So um, yeah, that's I think that's a beautiful thing. And so, and I want to ask you as well, right? So um your and this is around your your goal of being vertically integrated. Um, so what what are some of the maybe just for the listeners, what what does it mean to be vertically integrated and what are some of the benefits of that?

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Vertically integrated means you want to be able to do everything that pertains to the property in-house. So it means uh when you talk about the uh property management, the asset management is already part of what we're doing as an operator, but when you bring the property management in-house and you bring um repair and renovation in-house, that is what is called a vertical um integration, because now everything is done within your community, within the um memberships, in the uh people who are who the owners and the sponsors. So um the one I really, really love is the property management, because good property management is what makes or kill a deal, uh, an asset. So if you don't have a good property manager, or maybe your property manager is not aligned with your um budget spending, then you tend to spend a lot more, and then the profit is gone with you know with the um with the excessive spending. But if you have a good property manager or management company who tells you we can get this done for this amount of money, okay, we don't need this amount of um um high income managers, we can do this with some um let's say contractors or something like that, you you know, they they align with you, and so they're gonna help you reduce the expenses on those on those properties and and um increase your profit. So if you're able to do all that in-house, meaning you now have within your group people that are doing um constructions, renovations, you have people who do property management, and then all of you now sit together, your goals align, you design a very good business plan for that property. That's that's what is called the vertical integration.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Outstanding. Thank you so much, and so you know, one of the benefits, there are many. Um, you already mentioned kind of having control over cost and alignment on costs. Um, you tend to have a better handle on what the on the ROI from CapEx dollars, because that's one thing that, you know, it's as a passive investor, it might not be um super apparent, but you know, just because a a sponsorship team plans to uh spend a certain amount in CapEx and they believe they're going to get a certain amount um in return for those capex dollars, it might not always come to fruition. You so a good sponsor will typically check in very closely with their property manager, with um, you know, other assets in the area, hopefully with um, you know, the contractor or whoever helps them with due diligence. Now we get nowadays, you you can have uh companies who will help you do physical due diligence, and they might be able to also tell you what you can get or help you at least form an opinion around what you can get for the capex dollars you spend. But um again, as a passive investor, you don't always have an insight um as into whether the sponsor actually has done all of the legwork to feel confident in the ability to uh get a certain return from the CapEx plan. Once you're vertically integrated, however, you have all of that in-house. And so as a sponsor, you feel much more confident standing on those numbers because they're your numbers. You're not, you know, you didn't exactly reach out to someone else and say, What can we do? You you you guys have done the work. So um, I think I think that's a powerful method if you can um do that. There are a number of operators who, you know, like Raj48's a really good one, and um elevate their number ones out out there that are vertically integrated and had great success with it. Um and so what it also so let me ask you when when you are at the point where you are vertically integrated, um how how do you how do you also still tap into different markets um while vertically integrated? Because I know there's some and there are different schools of thought, right? For some, it's vertically integrated in one submarket, and then there's there are others where it's you're vertically integrated, but you're still flexible to go to other markets. Which which of those two do you kind of plan to focus on?

SPEAKER_03 38:16

So we uh we are planning on doing every market that we are in for us to be able to do vertical integration in those markets, and see this this uh real estate is a team sport. As long as you're able to attract people that your goals align anywhere you go, you can form groups, you can form very, very good partnerships with people in different states. There's good people everywhere. You just have to look and find them. So that's our goal. We just go into you know, wherever we need to be, we attract good people, we form a good alliance, and we take it off from there.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Incredible, incredible. Well, I'll tell you what, I you know, I I you I think you have really good business sense. So I do believe for sure that um you that you you you'll be be more than capable of doing that. Um, you know, you you you seem to have, uh I mean, you've like I said, you've tackled a number of different areas successfully, and um and you were able to shift and pivot, find what you like to do, find the markets that you like to play in, um, find the groups that you want to be around and continue growing all the while. So um yeah, I think I think that you're you're definitely on the right track. So that's really impressive.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

No, for sure, for sure. It's um, you know, so let me let me ask you then, and this is around because you've been in a number a number of um a number of groups. How does someone determine which one is a good uh fit for them?

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Well, I think first you have to do your own inner assessment. What exactly do you want? What are your goals? Where do you see yourself? What do you plan to achieve? See, I tell this to my children, and my daughter, she's she's very, very you know, inquisitive. She came to me one day and she goes, Mom, you know, I've been looking at you all these years. When I hear my friends say their moms didn't have a job or this and I never heard you out of job for one day. How do you how do you do that? I said, Girl, you have to plan ahead of time. What I did with my life, and I encourage everybody to do, is to have like a timeline. So every when I was in my 20s, I do every decade up until I'm in my 40s. So in my 20s, what I'm doing is I want to get good at the job that I'm doing, I want to have my children out of the way, I want to build a family, and then the next decade, I plan, okay, now I'm gonna start saving because I should have been stable in the job or profession that I pick right now. And so every so, and then when I got to my 40s, I'm like, okay, every decade is not gonna work anymore. I have to reduce it to every five years. Where do I want to see myself in the next five years? Put out a goal, a big one. And even if you don't get to the highest goal that you plan for yourself, the fact that you're working towards it is an achievement on its own. So if somebody is able to do that, same thing applies to business. In business, you have to plan first of all, this is where I am, this is what I want, this is how I think I'm gonna get there. I'm gonna walk towards it. I may have to revise the plan every, you know, every so often, but at least I'm working on that plan. So when somebody first looks at themselves and say, okay, this are also you have to look at what are your um superpowers. This is what I'm good at. These other things are needed for the business. I know I'm not good at it. I'm gonna go align with people who are good at that, and we form a good alliance, and that will help us get to the goal that we need to get to. So that's how to you know get to where you need to be and get people along with you. But you also have to be a good team player. You have to be a good team player, you have to be able to do whatever the team needs in order to propel the team forward. When people ask me what is your superpower, I said, honestly, I don't know what it is, but I know it's getting things done. Whatever needs to be done, whichever aspect needs to be done, I'm there. I can feed in anywhere to get the deal done. So that's how I think people should go about it. Set a goal for yourself, look for people that your goals align, because there's nothing as bad as forming a partnership and your goals don't align. There's going to be clash, and that partnership will not go anywhere. You will not achieve any goal.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

That's incredible. And I you're setting, I think you're set an amazing example for for your daughter, by the way. And I think um uh, you know, I've heard a uh quote that says only 3% um, you know, the people out there set goals, and the other 97% work for them, you know. And um the thing is, it just setting goals is just that much impactful. Um, it makes that much of a difference in in your lives. You know, it for me, it took it took me a while to to really have it set in to say I need to set some goals. And once I did, uh my achievement, you know, and my results went through the roof. Um and and so it I just think it's it's incredible. You know, you have to focus in on what it is you want. I love that you broke it out by decade. I think that's that's huge. I can say that in my 20s, I definitely was not a goal setter, but I think it's uh I think it's very important though. I mean, you sit down and set goals for the phases of life that you're in and for the results that you want. Um, so you know, very, very powerful stuff. And there are all sorts of tips. And that's another thing, by the way, that for me, um I think these mentorship programs are really good at is you'll be surrounded. About people who they're all goal setters. I mean, and so it's the opposite. It's if you're if you're not setting goals, you stand out as someone who kind of you know it is flounders all over the place. Whereas, you know, out in the general, uh, you know, sort of general public, it's almost the standard to sort of just go day by day, week by week, but not really having some firm, you know, goals in place.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Um, so no, I just I just say that goes your net what uh your your net what is your net worth, yeah. Yeah. So uh the people you surround yourself with are your net what if you surround yourself with poor people, and I mean poor not in the physical aspect of it, poor mindset, you know, they don't have any any ambitions, they don't have any goals, they don't have any drives in life, that's what you're gonna be. But if you surround yourself with go-getters, people who set uh targets for themselves and they work towards it and they achieve it, you're gonna be feeling left behind if you don't follow along.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 45:05

And and my my thing in life is I've always set uh find myself people that are way higher than me, that I'm gonna be looking up to okay, how am I gonna get there? But I need to get there. So that kind of keeped the drive going.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

Yeah, yeah, I I agree. Aim aim high. I mean, you know, yeah, you want to set, you know, have your your your peer group uh among people who will elevate you, who you have to step up to in order to speak the same language. And and you know, I even say that I think that uh the language in a lot of the groups changes as well, right? Because you start to speak about things that are positive and uplifting, you know, instead of things that will hold you back. So very powerful. So and we're gonna I wanted to ask you something really quickly too, because we're getting kind of we're getting um a little close to to close, but I did want to ask you um about your goal of kind of staying at the sub-institutional size um assets. It's very important um goal to have kind of which which which range you want to be in. And just for the benefit of the listeners, what what does it mean to target sub-institutional um size assets um uh as a as an operator?

SPEAKER_03 46:10

So substance uh sub-institutional assets are assets that it could be done based on class of the building, or it could be done based on the size of the property of the of the apartment properties, the uh apartment buildings. So the the institutional properties are huge in numbers, anywhere from like a thousand to fifteen thousand apartment units is what is called institutional. I'm not there yet, but I know someday at the rate I'm going, I will be there.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

So, but for now, like I said, it's every every five years that I'm reassessing the goal. So for now, it's sub-institutional. In the next five years, it will be institutional trophy assets, and that's where it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

Well, but you know what I will say. I mean, it's uh I still think you know, because when you think of institutional class, I mean, these things are like $100 million plus you know properties, and um, you know, you can certainly make a fortune at the sub-institutional um grade. I what's interesting, so I'm here in the DC area, and um, you know, the level of aware, because you're you're there in in Texas, and the level of awareness in DC about this business, the syndication business, the you know, investing in private offerings and in large real estate properties, the level of awareness is not quite um uh uh here as much as it is there.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

And it's partially because uh at least I know for myself and and for my my circle before I got into this space, the thought was these institutional um companies are the ones that own all of these buildings. Now, for some of them, like the deal, this the unit count that you mentioned, where it's like a thousand plus, you know, it it is true that institutions own those. But when you're talking, say 300, uh, you know, say that I don't know, 80 units to 300 units or something around there, um, those tend to be syndications. Those tend to be, you know, small funds that own those and that do very, very well. And so um, so I yeah, I I like that that you have that focus because I think that um, you know, playing in the institutional grade, it's it's it's a different thing. It's less nimble. But if you're in the sub-institutional, which is still a large property, still very, you know, I mean, still, you know, $100 million less, that's that's huge, or even 70, maybe 70 million dollars less, that's still a sizable asset.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

So you can build a actually let me let me let me back up on that and and and give this little tip. Um, about a month ago, we beat we we we underwrote uh uh 552 units uh in Florida, and we came in best and finals. Actually, it was two of us, and the other company, um, an Israeli company got the deal. Uh, not because we weren't you know good enough to get it, and that would that deal was 70. I think we offered 75 million for that.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Very nice. So you're already there.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

So and now we're looking at another one, um, you know, in um Tennessee that is about a thousand and two units, which is also gonna be very close in that range. Uh, again, like I said, you know, it's just to do one. Once you do one and you get a hang of it and you know what to do. This the well, I used to say the sky is the limit. My daughter corrected me. She said, No, the sky is not the limit anymore, because people can go to space now. So I'm in the limit anymore.

SPEAKER_00 49:42

That's right, that's right. And I'll tell you what, even in the deal that um where you ultimately weren't awarded that, that broker would probably give you a call and have a conversation with you about something else that pops up in the deal.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

Oh, he gave us some other ones. He said, See, there you go. It's powerful. I'm gonna give you some more deals. And yes, he gave us some other ones that are off the market.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Yep. See, there you go. There you go. Well, that's outstanding. That's outstanding. That's see, I mean, this is uh again a testament to growth, a testament to mentorship, continued progress, you know, very, very powerful. Um, so uh but we're we're getting close to close. I'm I I could I could talk to you for another two hours, but we're gonna we're gonna go ahead. This has been really good. So um, okay, so the first thing we'll get we're at the actionable tip part of the show. So if there's someone who's listening to this, they've been really really inspired by your story and your your drive. Um, what's something that they could do though to maybe get started now?

SPEAKER_03 50:33

So um I would love them to connect with me. Uh look me up at connect.promeritcapital.com. Connect.promeritcapital.com. Um they can see uh my website in there. Uh there's a book that I wrote on real estate investing. They can download it from there. Uh they can book a call to you know talk to me about more strategies on how, you know, and it doesn't matter what size, you know, start from little, start from no nowhere. We can strategize how you can build yourself up from zero to get into where your goal is gonna be. That's what I think I want to help people with because I know it was that journey was not easy for me. If I had somebody to hold my hand, I probably would have achieved what I achieved within maybe a shorter period of time. So I want to help people achieve this goal within the shortest possible time based on their motivation. I want to close with this saying Um, you are only motivated, uh you're only limited by your own motivation. Whatever you want to be, however motivated is what's gonna get you there.

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Excellent, excellent, excellent. And so I think I think you already um answered my next question, which was going to be how can the listeners reach out to you? But I think you already gave that information. Um so I'll I'll include that in the show notes. But are there any other channels or anything like that that you would like for them to contact you by?

SPEAKER_03 52:12

Well, um, I also have uh I'm on LinkedIn, so they can look me up on LinkedIn. It's Docker Nika Holt on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram, Nika uh real estate investing. So they can look me up on all social media. I'm on TikTok.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

All right, you can do some dances on TikTok. You know, so so good. So I I'll um I'll include all that in the show notes um so they'll be able to reach out to you. But again, this has just been uh, like I said, an incredible conversation. So um really, you know, it's been a pleasure kind of hearing your journey and the things that you're working on at the moment. And uh congratulations on the continued growth. So thank you so much for for uh being on the show.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Thank you for having me and have a wonderful day and wonderful week.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

You as well.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

As always, thank you so much for tuning in to the show today, brought to you by Bridge Prosper. If you enjoyed today's episode and you'd like to learn more about commercial real estate investing, please like, subscribe, and share. And we'll see you again next week. I'm Brandon Jenkins, and this is the Capital Stack, where we help you learn, apply, and prosper.