GI183: How to Find Off Market Properties with David Robinson

GI183 How to Find Off Market Properties with David Robinson

David Robinson is an active investor, broker, and podcast host. As a broker and investor, David has been directly involved in over $250 million in real estate transactions.

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Announcer:
Welcome to the Global Investor Podcast, a show that focuses on helping foreign investors enter the lucrative US real estate market. Host Charles Carillo combines decades of real estate investing experience with a professional background in international banking to interview experts in all areas of US real estate investing. Now, here’s your host, Charles Carillo.

Charles:
Do you have money sitting in the stock market? And you’re worried about it or worse. You have money sitting at the bank, not keeping up with inflation. My name is Charles Carillo, founder and managing partner of Harborside Partners. And since 2006, I’ve been investing my money and my family’s money into income producing properties. These are real assets, real properties with real addresses that produce real cash flow. At Harborside Partners, we provide passive investors who love real estate with a turnkey investing solution. If you want to put your money to work in real estate, but can’t find deals, don’t have the time to get funding in. The last thing that productive people want to do is manage real estate. We find the deals. We fund the deals and we manage the tenants, the termites and the properties. Partner with us at investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com. Go to investwithharborside.com. If you love real estate, you like the idea of passive income and believe that income producing properties will appreciate over time. Go to investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com.

Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host Charles Carillo. Today we have David Robinson. He is an active investor, broker, and podcast host. As a broker and investor, David has been directly involved in over $250 million in real estate transactions. So thank you so much for being on the show, David.

David:
My pleasure, Charles. Thanks for having me.

Charles:
So give us a little background on yourself both personally and professionally prior to getting involved in real estate investing. I know you’re on the agent side, broker side previously.

David:
Yeah. you know, I, real estate’s pretty much all I’ve known professionally. I had graduated from high school, had started college and ended up serving about two years in a church service mission. And upon returning, I got back to school. I was working for my dad’s mechanical engineering firm. And while I was on that mission, I had one of the leaders of the mission headed. He was a a successful real estate broker in his own right and had encouraged me to explore getting into the real estate side of things when I got home. And so I had gone back to school. I was working for my dad and started to pursue getting my real estate agent’s license. And about that same time I had screwed some things up at my dad’s business and ultimately was fired from his firm.

David:
I don’t know if it was really fired, but we had a mutual parting of the ways and I realized, okay, I’ve gotta go and, and, and, you know, plow my own path here. And that’s what sort of sparked me to get into this space. I ultimately I made a move up to Utah because I had some connections up here. I w I was born and raised in, in Phoenix, Arizona, and had some connections in Utah. And so ended up making move up here to work with a broker that was just starting a new firm, was looking for some young and hun hungry guys to come and help him build that. And so I immediately got my, I had gotten my license in Arizona. I immediately got my license upon arriving in Utah, in Utah as well. So I had both an Arizona and a Utah license and immediately started working on building a business.

David:
And ultimately I spent, you know, the first decade of my real estate career on the brokerage side of the business, mainly focused on foreclosure prevention, short sales as we went through the recession. And and then transitioned into more of sales management, team management on the traditional residential side of the business. It wasn’t until about five years ago that I really started to focus on the investing side of the business and ultimately transitioned out of traditional residential brokerage and focused and honed in on investment property and multi-family real estate in particular. So now today the business is highly focused on multi-family investing. There’s really two aspects to our business. The first is our brokerage services here locally in Utah, where we work with buy and hold investors who are looking to acquire small scale, multi-family property for their own personal portfolios. And by small scale, I’m referring to anything roughly under 5 million in value, all the way down to your typical duplex and fourplex. So we work with private investors that are looking to buy stuff for their own personal portfolio. And then about 18 months ago, we implemented the syndication side of our business can Novo Capital, which focuses on acquiring large commercial multi-family assets, and then structuring those as syndications, which allows members of our investor network that we’ve already built up here locally to invest alongside us as passive investors in those type of opportunities.

Charles:
Oh, that’s awesome. So let’s talk about your first commercial apartment building I found was very interested in during my research. You purchased for 2.2 million with only $10,000. So tell us about this deal, how you found it. You know, all, all the particulars.

David:
Yeah. When we, when I had made the decision to transition out of the residential sales management, brokerage management side of things and, and turning into the multi-family space, I, I thought there was no better way for me to sort of learn the space rather than, you know getting out there, getting my feet dirty and, and hands dirty and, and and acquiring a property. And so that’s what we immediately set out to, to do. We started we, we were, we sourced this deal completely off market. It wasn’t listed you know, in, in the traditional ways. And we connected with the owner directly through direct mail. And it was about a six month maybe actually more like eight months to 12 months. I don’t remember the exact timeline, but it was quite a long follow up time from our initial contact with the owner to when we actually acquired the property.

David:
But we ended up sourcing the deal through direct mail and after, again a lot of follow up, ultimately we were able to get a contract on the property, and I structured the deal in a way that allowed me plenty of time to, you know bring in partners that were a good fit for that. I had actually already identified partners that would be a good fit for this asset. It was 14 unit buildings your typical sort of c class, what you would find here in Utah, up and down what we call the Wasatch front. And 14 units, two bed, one bath C class you know, 800 square feet, typical type stuff. 19, late 1960s, early 1970s construction. So we got the contract and I put $10,000 earnest money up. Had about 90 days to close on the deal through the contract.

David:
I had already had partners in place that this was a perfect property for them in the sense of they owned other product types similar to this. And they also had a management company that managed this type of product. And so I knew that they would be very interested in partnering with me on that. So once I got the contract, I approached them and let them know about the deal. They were anxious to be involved. In fact, they had another property that they were just in the process of selling that they wanted to exchange into. And so they brought all of the equity to the table. In fact, they reimbursed me for my expenses. I, I the $10,000 earnest money as well as you know, around $5,000 in due diligence costs. And and then I held an equity position in that deal and partnered with them directly, so as a joint venture.

Charles:
So they were 10 30 wanting into this property.

David:
They yes they had they had some 10 31 exchange funds that they were rolling out of another property really just sort of repositioning the equity. The other asset was underperforming wasn’t really what they were looking for poorer condition. And so they were sort of moving up into this deal.

Charles:
Oh, nice. Yeah, it’s great. It’s perfect. You found that. And I imagine they want the jump on top of it so they could place that capital without having to pay any type of capital gains on it. So that’s, yeah, that’s awesome. A win-win for everyone, which is a great deal.

David:
Yeah. You know, I mean, there’s always talk about, you know no money investing, no money down investing mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and, you know, I, some of that’s just gimmick. But the, the reality is under the right circumstances with the right deal and the right partners, it’s definitely possible. And there’s just a, a simple, you know example of that.

Charles:
Yeah. Well, the thing though is that you brought enormous value to the deal and to your partners, which made it so there wasn’t a lot, you put down a half percent like of earnest money, which is, you know, very, very small. Yeah. And you’re able to do it. But the thing though is that I think when people say no money down, they’re, they’re not bringing, when that’s sold, it’s, it’s being sold to people or people are listening to it that aren’t really bringing much value to it. And you’re compensate for the value. And anything that you bring, the more value you provide, the better you’re compensated. And the thing that was that in there, you were bringing value, some in cash, some in tying up the deal and getting it done, but you also did a lot of due diligence on it. Yeah. And that’s stuff that you risked. I mean, you risked that money, not that it was a ton of money per the purchase price, but it’s a lot of money. And, you know, if something happened in that due diligence process where you found something, you know, there was something that was a major problem, you would’ve lost

David:
That. Yeah. And I would say that because we found the deal off market direct to owner, it definitely gave me more flexibility than I would’ve had if it was you know being pushed out through a broker. I can’t imagine that I would’ve only been able to put up $10,000 earnest money to tie the property up, and they would’ve definitely you know, shortened my due diligence timeframe. I, I believe, if I remember correctly, we had a total of 90 days with an additional 30 day extension. Wow. Which gave me plenty of time to get my to get my partners involved and make sure that we had a good deal and get the financing lined up and, and get things headed in the right direction.

Charles:
Yeah. You would never have that through a broker, especially today. So it’s but I, one thing I wanted to just circle back on before we move on is that you said that it took eight months. So I mean, that’s a ton of time that you invest in finance deal, not, you’re not just finding a deal through another broker, through LoopNet, through something like this. I mean, you literally spent a ton of time and you didn’t talk about those costs and all the time involved with, I imagine all the mailing and all the research and everything goes with it. Cause I’ve done that before and the only time I’ve gotten to a serious point of possibly putting out an l o i to someone or something like this, it’s taken several, several months. Yeah. You know, this is not, I think you have people that come from the single family and they’re like, oh, well this person’s utilities got turned off, or they’re not behind their tax or the, you know, and it is, yes, that’s a motivated seller.

Charles:
Yes. It doesn’t happen on the commercial side. It really just doesn’t, because, you know, so you’re, you’re, you’re telling someone, Hey, I’ll buy this from you. And even if they have, you know, 20 units and it’s pure managed and you know, 15% of 15 people of those 20 pay on time and two pay late, and one’s being a vic, I mean, they still are cash flowing and it’s like hard to say, Hey, sell this and this is the whole thing because you need to, it’s like, no, no, I don’t really need to, you know what I mean? It’s probably paid off. It’s, so, it’s like, it’s a different whole different mentality when dealing with, you know, a commercial property owner, even if it’s mom and pop versus your single family person that might have found themself in in an, you know, in an issue.

David:
Yeah. You know, you make such a great point. I have a lot of investors or would be multi-family investors that have come from the single family space or, you know, have done fix and flip in the past or have, you know, worked with wholesalers. And so there’s a different mentality, right? And you you nailed it on the head. Most multi-family property owners are not in distress. And in fact, many of the mom and pop owners have owned their property for 10, 15, 20, 30 years and are cash flowing very well. And so there’s there, there’s usually not the same level of motivation that you often find in distress, single family scenarios. In this particular instance the motivation was simply they had owned the property for roughly 20 years. They had three siblings involved. And when we first made contact with them and made them an offer I think that they were just sort of testing the waters to see what would be possible.

David:
And so we made an offer to them. They ended up saying, Hey, you know what, the, the timing’s are not right. We need to find an exchange property to move into. They were really looking into mo looking to move into like a triple net lease type product that would be less burden on them from a management perspective. And so we just had to remain patient. As I mentioned, you know, six, I, I think it was like eight, maybe 10 months wow long, I can’t remember the exact timeframe, but it was a long time from when we initially connected with them multiple follow ups. In fact, you know we would contact the owner and just say, Hey, just checking in. Did you, were you able to find your, you, you know, a good replacement property? We were just very patient and accommodating. And I think that really played well for when we actually did get the, the deal under contract. Is it the owner knew that we weren’t going to be pushy, we weren’t trying to steal a property for them. We understood their situation and w wanted to do the best we could to accommodate and, and help them with what they were trying to accomplish on the back end. Yeah.

Charles:
I always tell people that like, you know, people that want to direct mail and it’s like, if you’re not gonna do it for two years, and that means that, cuz you’re not gonna find someone for seven months in and then you got another year on top of it don’t do it. You know what I mean? It’s a two year process. So if you don’t wanna consistently mail for a hundred mo a hundred weeks, then it’s not the strategy for you. Yeah. But David, let’s talk about your current investment strategy and criteria for your, your your syndication company.

David:
Yeah. So really the focus of the syndication company came out of necessity. We were having many, many conversations with our small scale multi-family investors here locally in Utah where you know, there’s a lot of great reasons to be be buying real estate in Utah right now, but cash flow is not necessarily at the top of that list. Utah is a high growth market cash flow, you know, with cap rates compressing and values just skyrocketing as is the case all across the country. But the rents haven’t adjusted to a point where cash flow really is abundant here in Utah, especially in small multi-families. So I kept having conversation after conversation after conversation with our investors that would say, Hey, you know what can you find us a better cash flowing opportunity? And I would have to tell them, like, look, the reality here in Utah is this is what you are going to typically find.

David:
Yes, you may find the outlier that does produce a cash flow that you’re looking for, but the return profile that you’re looking for just isn’t to be found here. And so we started to explore alternative options to help our investors participate in a better blend of both cash flow and appreciation. And that’s when we set out to sort of explore what that would look like investing outside of our own market here. That’s when we were exposed to the concept of syndication. And ultimately through our podcast we have been able to network with really high level operators in other markets outside of Utah. We initially started focusing on the Midwest. Our criteria was to find an operating partner first. That was the most important aspect of us investing out of state, was finding a local operator who had a track record of success who was values aligned with us in how we want to do business and how we want to treat our investors.

David:
And they were also still on a growth trajectory. I’ve had an opportunity to network with a lot of investors who have spent the last decade building up very significant portfolios and are sort of just sitting back and enjoying what they’ve already built. Right. Well, in order for me to provide deal flow to my investors, I couldn’t be working with that type of operator. That was just, you know, managing their assets. I needed someone who was actively out in the market looking for opportunities. So those were the three main criteria for us initially were, number one, it was focusing on the Midwest. Number two was a local operator that was boots on the ground in that market that was on a growth trajectory and had a track record of success. Once we found that, then it was a matter of the asset type, which was usually dictated by our operating partner, but with a focus on multi-family, ideally a hundred units or more B and c class with a value add component.

Charles:
Hmm. Yeah. So tell us about how you raised 1.4 million and 48 hours for your first indication deal. So how did you do that? Cuz that is definitely more than most first time syndicators.

David:
Yeah, I would say it’s a unfortunately for those that are, you know, in, they have a desire to raise equity for a deal. It doesn’t happen overnight. <Laugh>. And, and so this was a process, like I said, that started 18 months before we actually needed the equity. And it started with me exploring what this opportunity would look like, educating myself about the syndication process and what and, and how that works and how we could get our investors involved. And then it was also educating our investors all along the way. Now I think we have a competitive advantage because I had already spent a significant amount of time building up a database of multi-family investors, albeit these are investors that were looking to buy product for their own personal portfolios and really weren’t passive investor minded. What I found is that as I told them about the concept of passively investing in the syndications they really were interested in that.

David:
They had an appetite for to either add that to what they were already doing or they said, this is the solution I’ve been looking for all along. I actually don’t want to own that fourplex or that six plex or that duplex. I actually would much rather focus on my business or profession where I’m earning a great income and invest passively in another deal that’s sort of put out on a platter for me. So that’s the con the type of conversations that I started to have 12 and 18 months prior to us needing the equity. And through that education process, keeping my investor network in involved in the evolution of what we were trying to accomplish when the timing was right. And we had the deal and the partner then putting it in front of our investor network, there was, there was already that built up appetite built up education that we have been doing for the last, you know, roughly 12 months. And I can go into the details in the granular step by step if you would like, if that would be helpful to you. But, but at a high level, that’s what it was. It was educating people all along the way and preparing them over a period of, like I said, six to 12 months, where once we had the deal and the opportunity, they were ready to take action on it.

Charles:
Yeah. So it’s really not 48 hours, it’s really 12 months, 18 months, whatever. It’s of your relationship and then of coaching six to 12 months of educating them and coaching them and keeping in touch with them and then, hey, this is a deal and this is, you know, this is the email going out and or whatever, however you contacted them.

David:
Yeah. And, and to your point 48 hours from the time we sent the deal out to when we had our reservation full, right. We, we, we were oversubscribed in in less than 48 hours. Wow. We really, my I was I was looking to bring about a million dollars to the table and we ended up, you know, having reservations in 48 hours of 1.4 million. And so the, the process by which we got to that point, and the reason why we’re able to, to raise that is all the work that was done upfront. And then on deal specific, I flew out to the property, I recorded some video, I toured the comps, I gave my investor, I sent my investor network a preview of the asset before we actually even released the deal, which was drone footage. It was me touring the property and touring some comms, helping them to understand what was going on in that market. I also sat down with my partners in the local market there, did an interview with them so that my investor network could become familiar with my partners. And so all that work condensed mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, when we released, we were ready to raise the equity and, and did it without any problem.

Charles:
That’s that’s really thorough. I’ve never heard of many. Cause even when I would get or get potential passive investments it’s usually there’s no, you know, there’s nothing that predating, let’s just say it’s just, Hey, here’s a deal and you gotta move on it or not. And so

David:
You and, and Charles, I guess I would say that I don’t know that that’s gonna, that’s necessary for me moving forward. Right. But for your first deal, yeah. Putting in that amount of effort to educate your investors and help them become comfortable will, will really pay dividends in the actual raise if you’ve done the ground, laid the foundation for them to be comfortable with investing.

Charles:
So, David, let me just ask you one more thing on that, because normally when I’ll tell people, I’ll say, listen, if you’re raising for your first deal, you need a million dollars or raise $2 million, you’re gonna have 50% kickout. I didn’t have it on my first deal. I had really no kickout because I had relationships with these potential at that time. And now passive investors of ours, how about you? You, you put so much work into preparing them. I imagine you had very minimal kick out of people that ch when I say kick out, people changing their mind and not following through with the investment after giving some sort of soft commitment.

David:
Yeah. great point. And, and I have the same experience. You know, I’ve heard horror stories of people raising equity on their very first deal, and it just wasn’t the case for me. And I, you know, I, I attribute that to the amount of work that we put in leading up to the actual raise. But I I, to answer your question directly, no, we had literally no kickout or no back out. And I actually had to carve a lot of our investors back, right. We had too much equity. And so that was a great problem to have. So I had to go back to a lot of my investors and say, Hey, look, you know, we’re trying to get everybody involved who wants to be involved? Would you mind reducing your investment you know, from X to X? And and, and so we had to do some of that. And then I do believe we had one investor who life circumstances changed at the last minute. And and he withdrew, but we had multiple investors that were ready take their place right r right after that.

Charles:
Yeah. That’s a rare thing if it’s actually a true, you know, issue like that. But it’s usually people have changes of attitude and everything like that, but the, the amount of preparation you did really concretes that raise. So, and that’s more than I’ve heard from anybody else in the first raise. Cause we definitely didn’t do that, you know what I mean, I took some pictures here and stuff like that, but it was really people that had trusted you and knew that you were in real estate before and all this kind of stuff that trusted in investing with you. But you’ve been around real estate investors for many years, you’re obviously a real estate investor yourself. What are common mistakes that you see real estate investors make and, you know, maybe it’s overlooked metrics that investors are not paying attention to when getting involved with a deal or reviewing a particular deal?

David:
Yeah, you know I love this question because it really tees up a conversation that I have with a lot of our investors. So again, I, I, I think this really can apply to any investor across the board, but really applies to investors that are in single family or small multi-family. And one of the key metrics that I see our clients and investors often overlook is return on equity. Right? So if you’ve, if you most investors don’t have any problem calculating their return on investment, right? They take their, their their return compare that against the amount of equity initially invested in the deal, and you get your return on return on investment. What they don’t take into account is if they bought that property 5, 6, 7, even three years ago, at least in our market, they’ve likely built up a significant amount of equity in those properties.

David:
And they overlook the fact that they have this equity that’s been built up that now is underperforming. And so what we do with a lot of our clients is they come to us, one of the very first steps that we take when we evaluate their existing portfolio is determine what’s the return on equity that they’re getting for the equity that’s trapped in their property now. And does it make sense to consider refinancing to access that equity achieve identifying an equity line of credit or potentially exchanging selling the asset and exchanging into something new? And so I I, we have a small calculator, I’m happy to share it with your listeners. Very totally free. It’s just a, a simple Google sheet that they can plug in their numbers and and it’ll spit out their projected return on equity based upon their assumptions. And it’s often surprising for our clients to look at their return on equity and realize how, how underperforming their asset really is and what could happen if they were to reposition that equity into a new asset.

Charles:
Oh, that is fantastic, because that’s one thing when I talk to new investors that are getting into commercial properties and you’ve got a five year term usually, or a 10 year term, that’s usually all it’s offered, right? From a traditional local bank, local credit union. And they’re like, like, well, you know, I gotta worry about rates and all this stuff going up, but it also pushes you to refinance Yes. Generate fees, and it’s less risk for the bank. However, it’s also, you can now harness maybe not all that equity in there, but you know, like you’re not gonna get every penny out of it, but you’re gonna get a, a, a chunk of equity out of the property every five or 10 years since you’re forced for the refinancing. And then allows you to kind of keep, keep that return up because it’s return on investment.

Charles:
Everybody talks about, I love the return on equity. One more thing is return on time, which kind of dovetails us into where we’re going now with like passive investing and asking you about that. But I think those are like three metrics in return on time. People go, well, I couldn’t invest in myself and do this. And that’s definitely a new investor that’s never managed property whether it’s asset management or actually manage it themself because they don’t know how time intensive it is. And that’s one thing with passive investing I wanna talk to you about, you know, what is your method for finding the best deals and sponsors while being a limited partner? And I imagine you have still have some passive investing that you do.

David:
Yeah, well for me it all comes down to the operator. It’s less about the deal although we do, you know, underwrite the deal at a higher level, but for, for us, it’s about the operator and building a relationship with quality operators. So it’s you know, we we’re focused, right? So there’s a lot of people that can focus on different asset types and different asset classes. For me, I, I wanna stay in the lane of multi-family, at least for the time being and really focused on B and C class assets, you know, a hundred units or more, and, and with a quality operator. So that helps us sort of narrow that down to be more efficient in what we’re looking for. But it really starts and ends with who the, who the operating partners are and what’s their background, what’s their track record what’s their, you know, investment thesis and have, have they executed on a business plan, been successful on a full cycle deal.

David:
Those are all questions that, that we ask. And as far as finding those sponsors, w I have a unique advantage because I host a podcast as well. And you know, the value of hosting a podcast is that you get the network with really incredible people all over the country. And so our podcast is focused on multi-family and focused on interviewing sponsors, lead sponsors that are operating deals. And so that gives me a front row seat of having conversations like this with really quality people. But it’s not that, it’s not just that. It’s also finding people that you enjoy working with, right? That you, cuz you’re gonna be attached to these people for 3, 5, 7, maybe even 10 years. And you want to be able to you want to be investing with someone that you like, you like communicating with you, like their style, you like their values.

David:
And that goes, that’s important. It’s not just about the return that they’re spitting out on their, on their proforma, right? It also comes down to sort of those intangibles about working with someone long term and are they gonna do the, the right thing regardless of the circumstance. So I don’t know if that that really answers your question, but our, our process is pretty simple. Interview a lot of operators, narrow it down to the people that are focused on the asset types that we’re looking for. And then of that list, who do we like working with and who wants to work with us? That’s how we identify. And obviously there’s a lot of other criteria in there, but that’s, at a high level, that’s what it is.

Charles:
Yeah, it just takes a lot of time of going through and figuring out who aligns with your interests and who’s e gonna be who you think a good partner and can that you can work with for five, seven years, which is typically what these deals, not currently, but typically that’s how they along these deals are supposed to go. So we talked about a little bit about return on equity from brokerage clients that you had and showing them that how have multifamily syndications increased returns for your brokerage clients? Is the return on equity a major part of it? Because now you’re doing a lot more, I wouldn’t say exchanging, but buying and selling properties. So you’re harnessing that equity right away within whatever three to five year hold period or are what other ways have you figured, have you found that these syndications are increasing your returns?

David:
Well it really comes down to the fact that first off, it comes down to what does the investor want to do, right? Because we work with both what we call active investors and passive investors. We work with active investors through our brokerage services and help them acquire small multi-family. So we love working with both, right? And and, and so what’s the investor’s goal? Do they want to focus on their business, their profession, or their other activities outside of investing that are important to them? Or do they want to be active in the business and actively investing actively managing their own portfolio? So that’s the first question, what’s most important to them? And of course there’s some overlap. We have plenty of investors that want to own some of their own portfolio and also invest passively in other larger deals. So that’s the first question.

David:
Once we have that answered in what direction they lean, then it’s a matter of what does their current investments look like? And we help them analyze that portfolio. And then we take the lowest hanging fruit and say, Hey, your return on equity is x, can we improve upon that by investing in another asset that could produce a better cash, better cash on cash return if that’s what they’re looking for. And that can be another small multi-family property, or it could be investing in a syndication. So the syndication allows them, in many cases, because my investors are lo the, the vast majority of my investors are localized here in Utah. The syndication gives them an opportunity to participate in something that probably has a better blend of both cash flow and appreciation. Whereas here locally, they’re probably investing for the most part for that appreciation play. Yeah.

Charles:
Yeah. So it’s nice to get a mix of that. That’s great. Yeah. As we’re finishing up here, I’ve got one other question, which kind of goes back to our return on time and syndications and because this is a question I get a lot, you know, should I buy a two to four unit property or invest into a syndication?

David:
Yeah. And, and I wish there was a black and white answer, it would help me in my business in, in guiding my clients, but it really just comes down to preference, to be honest. I mean, there’s great deals to be had in, in small multi, and there’s great opportunities to be had in investing passively. And the reality is you, you need to become clear on what you’re trying to accomplish in the long term. And generally I see, like I already alluded to, I see our investors leaning one direction or the other. Either they enjoy being able to own and manage their own portfolio. They’re okay taking on all the risk and all the liability of personal ownership all the challenges that come along with personal ownership and likely achieve a little bit higher return than they would if they’re investing passively with something that’s served up on a platter for them.

David:
And so it really comes down to their goals and what they’re trying to accomplish. Do they see themselves as someone who enjoys owning, managing and operating real estate? If not, you’re probably better off. If you’re not gonna put the time and energy and effort into really understanding how investment property works, how to manage property or how to manage managers of the property, then you’re probably better off staying focused on your profession or your other small business. However, you, you earn your income and investing passively in other opportunities because they’re plentiful. Yeah. There’s so many opportunities to participate in. You’re not gonna, I, once you get into this space and you start to understand how passive investing and syndications work, there’s many opportunities to be had. And so you don’t have to go and buy your own fourplex, your own sixplex, your own 12 plaques, your own duplex, whatever it might be.

Charles:
Yeah. I think you have a lot of investors that wanna think they wanna do it actively and they’re really running from something instead of running towards something. And it’s like, I hate my day job, so I wanna do this. Hey, this is another job. You know what I mean? If, if you don’t have everything, so it’s like maybe the passive investing and stick it out for another few years in your business and, you know, you’ll really see that you can really grow some passive income and do what you really want. So one, one last question here. What do you think are the main factors that have contributed to your success, David?

David:
Just consistency and persistence over time. I think you know, I I, I’m, I’m not unlike anyone else who would like to see more progress in a shorter period of time. In fact, I look back on the first, you know, decade of being in the real estate world. And you know, I had a rude awakening after roughly a decade where I realized, my goodness, I’ve been in the real estate space for this long, but I had not done what I needed to do to build up any significant amount of wealth or cash flow in my life. And that all too often happens for real estate agents mm-hmm. That are in the business and they earn their income through real estate. They neglect the investing side even though they have a front row seat to it. And I, I wasn’t immune to that. And so it took me sort of recalibrating what I wanted to accomplish long term and and then charging after that.

David:
And you know, just staying consistent and persistent grinding through the monotony of success and finding mentors and coaches that can guide me along the way. I think too often we’re our own worst enemies and limiting beliefs limit the possibilities of what we can truly accomplish. And hiring coaches and finding mentors who have done what you want to do and can help you see beyond your own personal limiting beliefs is absolutely critical and, and has been for myself. I, I’ve hired multiple coaches specifically to help me break through certain ceilings of achievement and I think that’s critical.

Charles:
Oh, that’s said perfectly. Thanks David. So how can our listeners learn more about you and your businesses?

David:
Well, they can check out the podcast at the apartment investing journey.com. And that’s the apartment invest, or excuse me, apartment investing journey. Just search that up. And then if you wanna reach out to me, feel free to visit can novo capital.com. That’s c A N O v O can novo capital.com. There’s a bunch of information on our website a few downloads, free downloads of information for both, for both passive and active investors. And and then they can also reach out to me via email at david can novo capital.com.

Charles:
Well, thanks so much for coming on today, David. We really appreciate having you and looking forward to connecting with you here in the near future.

David:
Thanks, Charles, appreciate it.

Charles:
Talk to you soon.

Charles:
Hi guys! It’s Charles from the Global Investors Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you’re interested in get involved with real estate, but you don’t know where to begin, set up a free 30 minute strategy call with me at schedulecharles.com. That’s schedulecharles.com. Thank you.

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About David Robinson

David Robinson is CEO and Founder of Canovo Capital, LLC. He is an active investor, broker, and podcast host. As a broker and investor, David has been directly involved in over 250 million in real estate transactions. He has led top-producing real estate sales teams and managed a leading national franchise brokerage. He holds an active real estate broker’s license in the state of Utah. At Canovo Capital, David oversees all due diligence/acquisitions, capital raising efforts, investor relations, and asset management for his firm.

David is also the creator and host of the Apartment Investing Journey, one of the fastest-growing multifamily investing podcasts in the country. Each week David interviews top real estate investors from all over the country to extract their strategies, successes, and secrets to help YOU on YOUR apartment investing journey.

When he’s not neck-deep in an exciting real estate transaction, he spends his time with his wife of 16 years and their 4 children. He enjoys coaching youth football, trips to the cabin at Duck Creek Village, Utah, and sweating through hard workouts at Crossfit XD.

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