GI287: Acquiring $168 Million of Real Estate with Leslie Awasom

GI287: Acquiring $168 Million of Real Estate with Leslie Awasom

Leslie Awasom began real estate investing in 2017 with single-family homes before transitioning to multifamily investing in 2019. Since then, the firm he co-founded, XSITE Capital, has purchased 838 units, valued at $168 million.

Watch The Episode Here:

Listen To The Podcast Here:

Transcript:

Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast. I’M your host, Charles Carillo. Today, we have Leslie Awasom. He began real estate investing in 2017 with single-family homes before transitioning to multifamily investing in 2019. Since then, the firm he co-founded, XSITE Capital, has purchased 838 units, valued at $168 million. Thank you so much for being on the show!

Leslie:
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Such a pleasure being here. Thank you.

Charles:
Yeah, it’s great to get you on and kind of go through your story. So you have a very interesting background and can you go through a little bit about yourself, both personally and professionally prior to getting bitten by the real estate bug and going full in? Yeah,

Leslie:
Absolutely. So like you mentioned, my name is Leslie Awaso. I’m an immigrant. I migrated to the US 24 years ago from a small central African country, Cameroon just come to the US like most immigrants are seeking for greener pastures. So when I came to the US I followed the traditional path which is start to most of us immigrant families to go to school, get a good job, and then you know, start working and hopefully save some money and retire at some point, you know? So I followed that path. I followed the path. My mother is a nurse. She pushed me into healthcare as well. After I started in computer science, got hit by the.com crash in 2000 and had to change paths. So I went into nursing, became a nurse practiced as a ICU nurse for about four years.

Leslie:
Then decided to go back to school to get an advanced degree in anesthesia and became a nurse anesthetic. So at that point, it felt like I was at the pinnacle of my career in nursing because the nurse anesthetic is a very prestigious job to have. It’s well paid, nice schedule, nice lifestyle but I felt like I got to a point after about a year of my career, I felt like I had hit the ceiling of my career growth. And just that feeling of being stuck in this routine of going to work every day, coming back and earning a salary just gave me this uneasy feeling. And then on top of that, as I started my career, I just had my second daughter, you know, so I was spending a lot of time in the hospital trying to make this money, putting in all this overtime hours.

Leslie:
And I realized that I missed out on a significant portion of my daughter’s life. Like, I remember coming home one day and I was sitting and observing her tired, and she had started walking and doing all these things, and it just hit me right there that I had missed out on all of our life on to this point. And it was because I was spending so much time in the hospital because for us healthcare workers, we leave our homes, especially in the winter months. Like right now, I leave my house five 30 in the morning and I come back at 8:00 PM at night. So I live when it’s dark, come back when it’s dark. So just your whole day is gone. You know, at that point I was like, there has to be something better. There has to be more. I cannot keep doing this for the rest of my life.

Leslie:
And as luck will have it, or as they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will show up. I was scrolling to my phone and I saw an article on Ywe that said, the author of Reach That Poor, that has written a book for millennials that are stuck in student loan debt and looking like for a way, or an alternate path to create passive income. And the name of the book is Second Chance by Robert Kiyosaki. So I bought the book, read the book, and the book was speaking directly to me. It felt like Robert was like a long lost uncle that came back to life and was a, answering all the questions that I had. So and one of the recommendations he gave on there was to go invest in real estate. So I followed exactly what he recommended, and then things just took off from there. Very

Charles:
Interesting, interesting. So in the, that was the book that kind of gave you the catalyst for choosing real estate as your investment vehicle, or was there something else between it?

Leslie:
No, it was just a book. It was that book. I had experienced 2008 during 2008 crash, a few of my family members actually lost some homes, so I was actually scared of real estate. You know, after 2008, like I remember I was here in Maryland, there were properties that were selling for $10,000, all cash. I had the money to buy it, but I, I was so scared I didn’t buy it, so I missed out on that because of the fear and the misinformation. But then that book, explain what happened in 2008, you know, and explain how the difference between buying real estate versus investing in real estate. So I dedicated my time to learn how to invest in real estate and took the plunge and started investing in real estate, then just grew from that. Yeah.

Charles:
So let’s talk about that. How’d you get, how’d you get first started into real estate? Dipping your toe in there?

Leslie:
Alright, so after I read the book, one of the things he recommended was going to networking events, talking to other real estate investors. So I went to, and I signed up for the Baltimore Real Estate investor association. Took a class on the BRR model, that’s the how to buy renovate, rent and refinance. And that really, that really appealed to me because I’ve always wanted to be like a long-term investor, not like a flip or anything like that. So I followed that model and I went and bought my first property. It was a condo in Greenbelt, Maryland, same model, <inaudible> <inaudible>, the guy that was living there passed away. So the family was selling it. We were able to get it for like a really good price, so did exactly that renovated the unit. And I took, I actually took time off work about two weeks vacation time off work, and spent time working with other contractors to renovate that unit.

Leslie:
And I really enjoyed that process, like leaving my house in the morning, going to the unit, you know, walking with contractors, putting this vision together and see that that little condo change from what it was to become something else. I, I really, really enjoyed that process. It didn’t feel like work to me, you know? And then on top of that, we did that. I put in a section eight, turning in there, and, and then after a few months we went and did the refinance, the value had gone up by about $77,000. I was like, oh my God. So this stuff is real, right? So that, that was like, that’s when it, it got ingrained in my subconscious that this is real, and I just decided to dedicate a lot more time on that and and build off of that.

Charles:
Yeah, that’s awesome. It’s that proof of concept and anything you’re doing doesn’t have have to be real estate, but whatever you’re doing, once you get that kinda goal full cycle where you’ve done something and they’re actually being compensated for it, like how you thought, then you’re like, oh, wow, okay. Like, this is, I got money in my hand and like everything kind of went together how it’s supposed to. So when you, you, you got that and you kind of moved on and you transitioned into multi-family investing where you are now. So can you just give us like a little bit of overview of why you did that? What were some of the factors? Because you did obviously really well in what you were doing before you liked doing what you’re doing, single family properties like that. Why go into multifamily investing? So,

Leslie:
That’s a very good question, right? I was doing the single family stuff. I had gotten that box. So my goal was to go out and buy more of those single family units and re repeat exactly that. You know, I had this dream of like maybe owning 20, 30 properties and getting all this cash flow and then maybe I’ll be able to scale back from work a little bit, you know. So, but along the way, as I was building on the real estate stuff, I met my first initial partner, Mr. Ari. So he actually came to sell me life insurance because at that time he was doing financial services. He came to sell me life insurance, and we started talking about personal development and business. And I realized that he was into personal development like myself. We were reading some of the same books at the same time.

Leslie:
He had read a Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant, which I was reading, and we were both reading the first book on el on Elon Musks by Ashley Vance. So we were both like friends of like personal development and entrepreneurship. So we became friends. Him and I actually used to meet every Friday evening at a coffee shop in College Park, Maryland. We’ll sit down play Robert Kiyosaki’s cashflow board game, and through that we’ll learn about each other. So I had to learn his money habits, realize that we think differently when it comes to money and investing. He is a hoarder. Why me are more of like a go, go, go getter, let’s go invest. So after doing that for about six, seven months I was still chasing the market looking for deals, right? So at one point he was like, Hey, you doing this real estate thing?

Leslie:
I wanna do real estate as well. Why don’t we just partner up and scale and do it together? And I was like, yeah, let’s do it. So initially we went out, we went and put offers. We were trying to buy a portfolio of like three or four single families and do what we were doing before. Fortunately we didn’t win some of those deals. Then one day, one day he called me, he was like, dude, I’m sending you this this audio. You gotta listen to it. I’m like, what are you talking about? He said, you gotta listen to it. So it was like a short course by Grand Cardone. It’s on the, in about multifamily investing, very simplistic explanation of what multifamily investing is, right? And what attracted me to it was the numbers in single family. I know that I’m buying and I’m renovating.

Leslie:
My value is based on a RV. If something happens in the ne neighborhood that RV might decrease. A multifamily is all numbers based. It’s about the income that you’re able to generate from that asset. So I was like, huh, why spend 10 years acquiring 20 properties when I could put in a lot of effort and just buy 20 units at once? That made a lot of sense to me. Then the more I read and understood it, I also realized that there was this model where you could syndicate, right? Bringing other people to invest with you, where you become co-owners of this asset and those people are passive, you know? And when I discovered that model the first thing that came to mind for me was other professionals that I work with at the hospital, other healthcare professionals that I see day in, day out doing exactly the same thing that I’m doing.

Leslie:
You know, and most of us don’t even know that we could do this. Most of us, all we know is that we could invest in the stock market. We could invest in ETFs and all these other funds. We don’t know that we make enough income to qualify as accredited investors, and we could actually invest in this premium multifamily assets. So that’s the premise of where Exec Capital was, was created. Because once we understood that we could go out to our community, especially a community of busy healthcare professionals, a community of immigrant professionals, and educate them about this asset, the excitement is where that name actually came from, excite Capital Investments. So that’s how we transition. And we said, you know what? It doesn’t matter what it takes, even if it takes us three or four years to close one deal, it’s better to put in those efforts and close a 200 unit property in two years than to go and start acquiring single family properties over a long period of time.

Charles:
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s a great story. 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. And 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@investwithharborside.com. That’s invest with harborside.com. Go to invest with harborside.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 invest with harborside.com. That’s invest with harborside.com. So can you kind of explain currently where your company is? What’s your current criteria for investing and your investment strategy overall?

Leslie:
Absolutely. So currently we’ve grown like you’ve like you mentioned, we’ve acquired over 838 units over the last five years. Something that, that we truly never dreamed of. We had these big visions, but thankfully when we came out, our community has received this very well and have been part of all these deals. And we are currently under contract to purchase another 268 unit building in Atlanta, Georgia. Our focus has been on like value add multifamily investing. We acquire a hundred plus units. We like to find like B class assets or c plus assets in really good neighborhoods, good locations that have an ability for us to be able to increase the income some way somehow with a true value add story. Which is an example of what we have right now in the asset that we are raising capital on in Atlanta. So those are the kind of assets we acquire and it, there has to be a clear path of what’s increasing the income and the location, the market very important for us as well. Nice.

Charles:
Interesting. So for the markets, getting down to that question there, I mean, I see you guys have properties everywhere, Washington, DC, South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, Indiana. I mean, how can you effectively purchase and manage properties and projects in, in several different states with your team?

Leslie:
So that’s a great thing about this large multifamily assets because it, the assets produce enough income to, for you to be able to hire a true professional property management company that’s onsite that manage the day to day of these assets. So we partner with like some of the best property managers in the industry and we also try to buy in markets that, that we just want flight away, right? And we visit our properties. I am the asset manager on our properties. I visit our properties at least once every quarter. All of our properties, we make sure that we visit. We also buy properties that are not too far from one of us, like Tenny. My my partner, he actually sold this house here in Maryland and I moved down south because we are buying a lot down there. So he lives in Charlotte right now. His boots on the ground goes out to our properties in Columbia, South Carolina, and Atlanta. And the properties here in the DC area, I go there all the time. The one outlier is the one in South Bend, Indiana, which we are partnered with another group that has a lot of presence on the ground there. Nice.

Charles:
Yeah, the boots on the ground, that’s why I was asking. It’s, it, it makes, you know, it makes or breaks the deal especially the property manager, but having the boots on the ground, being able to overview what’s going on, especially if you’re doing a value add type project where you know you’re really working, you know, the asset management, it really is including you know, a lot of the value add overview, right? From everything looking at the projects going on, the value like the, all the different commer construction, everything like that.

Leslie:
Absolutely.

Charles:
So, you know, a lot of things have changed here since you’ve started buying real estate and buying multifamily. And you know, really in 2022 we saw a lot of stuff changing with multifamily. We saw rents go a little bit more stagnant after a crazy 2021, the rise of interest rates. I mean, how has your firm adjusted underwriting and your asset management strategies? You have another property right now, 200 plus units that’s under under contract. So kind of how you’ve, how have you adjusted that over the last couple years?

Leslie:
So yeah, a lot of changes that’s happened in the market and over the last two years which explains why we haven’t closed any of the deal, brought any deal to my investors for the last two years as well, except this one. So we stay disciplined on the numbers, it’s based on the numbers. Like numbers don’t lie, you know, so we stick to our numbers and again, the location key, right? We wanna buy in areas where the, the, the residents in that area can afford to pay the rents for that property, right? We wanna buy in areas where there is projected growth, you know, looking at all the data for like new, new construction, any new product that is coming into the market to make sure that we are not going into a market where there’s a lot of supply and we’re struggling with that as well.

Leslie:
So, and so we, we, we, we make adjustments based on where the market is at interest rates versus cap rates, you know, so everything goes to like a very rigorous underwriting process to make sure that that property has the value to produce. And because of the changes in the market we even became more conservative on how we are projecting, especially on like the rent growth numbers. Most markets right now, actually, like I think in the US right now, there’s like a 0.7% rent decline average. So we make sure that we look at the specific market dynamics in all the projections that we are doing and going in very conservative. But this, this time right now presents like one of the best opportunities that, that we’ve seen since we started this business. You know, back in 2019, 2020, everything was growing and now things have gone down.

Leslie:
Like in some markets we’ve seen like a 20 to 35% drop in prices from where they were at the peak. So, so now we believe now is actually the time to go in and scoop these assets. And we are not the only ones who believe that all the large institutions, the Black Rocks of the world, they’re going in and scooping these assets. They have raised significant amount of funds and that they have a lot high liquidity and they’re very active in some of the markets that we are in right now. So we, we are hoping to capitalize on that as well, so that we are able to bring some of this institutional great assets to our busy professional investors.

Charles:
Yeah, that’s great. No, that’s a great plan. You, you touched on before about your team and how important was partnership to becoming a successful commercial real estate investor, making the decision because you were kind of by yourself as a, as a single family. How important was it now, the partnership aspect of so to become a successful commercial real estate investor in multifamily?

Leslie:
That’s a great question, man. Partnership is everything. There’s absolutely no way I would’ve been able to do the things that I do in multifamily right now without my partners. I was personally blessed to have two amazing partners. Dr. Julius Nie, an orthopedic surgeon who is a CEO and 10 to ari, like we compliment each other so much that that that has contributed significantly to our growth. And not just that we are the three founders of exec capital, but outside of that we partner with others, right? One of the things that we believe in is like, we wanna surround ourselves with the best, right? We do not know it all. So we identify partners that have more experience that are stronger in certain areas, and we partner with them on some of these deals that we buy as well. So for us, we believe strongly, strongly in the power of partnership, and we always looking to identify people that bring strengths in partnerships so that we can work with them. There’s absolutely no way we can go out and buy a 268 unit building without working with other partners. So yeah, so for us, partnership is important.

Charles:
Yeah, no, it’s, one of the things is when we venture out of our home market here in Florida definitely partnership and having partners with boots on the ground that know that and have their connections and network there makes a deal work without that. If someone was just like, oh, there’s you know, a new market we’re going into and you wanna be part of it, it’d be something that we would turn down. But having that, you know, the partnership with someone with a network and with that on the ground allows you to really plug into what they already have that’s working, which is extremely, extremely powerful.

Leslie:
Yeah, I agree. 1000%.

Charles:
So one more thing on partnering, I always want, because you have a number of different, you have multiple partners, and one thing I found with businesses that I’ve started that I’ve never really kinda worked out before, or whatever it was, it was, you know, when you’re starting a business with partners, it’s, it’s not really easy because, you know, people need to make money. Usually the business isn’t, you know, so it requires partners to have a job or some side business along with the new business you’re starting now. When you guys are starting, how did you manage to ensure your partners we’re putting in time at your firm XI capital while, I mean, obviously, you know, keeping their expenses paid.

Leslie:
Yeah, so that’s, that’s a great question, right? And, and it’s like one of those things that I’ve had to sit back and reflect upon, which is why I say that I’m so lucky to have the partners that I have had because we never really worried about that. All three of us had our jobs when we started had our full-time jobs while we are building the business, and all three of us contributed to building the business. We came into this knowing that it’s gonna take a huge amount of effort and financing for us to be able to get this off the ground. So we spent money, at least we had resources coming from our job to use that to invest in ourselves, invest in our business, and build the business over time. It really wasn’t until after about three years that we were actually able to get some money out of the business.

Leslie:
And as far as contributing time and money into the business, that has never been an issue for anyone of us partners. So because it’s like the, the passion, the why, the reason why we do this is strong enough on each and every one of us that we get up every day obsessed on how we can make this business move forward. I can tell you that since 2019 when we registered this business, a day hasn’t gone by that I’ve not spoken to my partners, whether it is about business or just about how we could build this and go forward. So it’s, it’s bigger than business at this point. It’s more like a journey of growth and that we are all working, working through together.

Charles:
That’s awesome. Yeah. That’s you sounds like you guys have a great company partnership there.

Leslie:
Thank you.

Charles:
One of the things that like you brought up before, and we really haven’t talked about it, but obviously I believe is a, a huge factor and your thoughts on what we’re doing is that you know, I have a number of friends that are immigrants or, you know, first generation from Eastern Europe mainly that came and their families like left when it was communists over there and they came here and the first thing I would see with those families is that they’d be buying real estate, starting businesses, a lot of stuff that they didn’t have access to, which as Americans, myself being born in America the United States, it’s something that you know, we take for granted almost that the ability is there. So how does being an immigrant change your view on the US economy and US business in general, while possibly giving you an edge over other real estate investors that maybe don’t see this dramatic opportunity in front of ’em?

Leslie:
That’s a great question. So for us, African immigrants, the predominant notion is like when we move to the us, we go to school, get a job, starting a business is like considered something risky, but here’s the, here’s the, here’s the piece, here’s the important piece that that that question brings up. It’s all about what we go out looking for. You gotta think about it from the perspective of the immigrant. I’m living some area that I, I consider trouble, right? I don’t have enough opportunity over there. I don’t have enough to eat. I don’t have the night shelter that I want. I am struggling. I am putting everything on the line to go to America in such of opportunity. So when we come to the us our eyes are wide open looking for the next opportunity, the opportunity to better ourselves, right? We are not bogged down by the political climate or what this person says or what we belong to that at least in the early phases when we are here, we are not bogged down by that.

Leslie:
All we care about are the opportunities that are available to us. And when we come, there’s an abundance of opportunity in the US that we see compared to the societies that we come, come to. Like when I came to the us I got a job at McDonald’s. I was getting paid 5 25 an hour. I remember calling my friend back home with so much excitement, I am making money, and I was going to McDonald’s dedicated the most dedicated employee doing about 60 hours a week without any complaints, right? But for an American that has been here, that has been given everything, you know, that doesn’t mean anything to them. So I think it’s about the perspective that you take. And this is not, this is not something that is unique to Americans. It’s kind of interesting because it’s something that I’ve really thought about and reflected about, and I see it in different societies, even in Africa. Like for example, I’m Cameroonian and Cameroonian will leave Cameroon and go to Nigeria, and they’ll be successful in Nigeria while a Nigerian will leave Nigeria and come to Cameroon and be successful in Camero. So it is like that, that that sense of entitlement that we have as citizens of a country, that that country owes us something that prevents us from looking at the opportunities. But when we leave that country and go somewhere else, we are looking for opportunity in that country and where we look for opportunities, we see opportunities.

Charles:
That’s fantastic. That’s a great answer. That’s a, that’s a great perspective, which I will keep in mind when any more of that conversation or topic ever comes up because that’s a great way of looking at it. I just always thought, like you were saying the, you know, opportunity, but even going be just back between co countries, no matter what level they are you know, it’s just you have a whole different perspective of what Yeah, I mean, makes perfect sense. So one of the things here before we wrap up, I always like to ask real estate investors, year five, going on your sixth year of real estate investing. I imagine you guys have turned on a lot of deals, especially over the last two years since you haven’t done any, you said what are common mistakes you see real estate investors make?

Leslie:
I think you kind of mentioned it a little bit, like just jumping into a new market without getting a full understanding of like what that market is, the market dynamics because a market can break a can make or break a deal. So just jumping into a new market without doing the adequate research for that market, it’s one of the big mistakes I’ve seen people make. Yeah,

Charles:
No, that’s a great answer. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. How can our listeners learn more about you and your business, excite capital?

Leslie:
All right, well, thank you so much for having me. I’m Leslie Owasso again, that’s my name. You could find me anywhere. I’m active on LinkedIn. Instagram is Leslie Owasso everywhere. And you could come we have a private community. It’s called the Beyond Nine to Five Club. It’s a community that we created for all the busy professionals that are looking to think outside of the W2 or 10 99 income to build something else for the long term. So it is beyond nine to five club.com. Come join us. We give a lot of value on that platform as well. So, and again, reach out to me if there’s any way I could contribute to your growth.

Charles:
Leslie, thank you so much for coming on today. I will put those links into the show notes and I’m looking forward to connecting with you here in the near future.

Leslie:
All right. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

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

Announcer:
Nothing in this episode should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Any investment opportunities mentioned on this podcast are limited to accredited investors. Any investments will only be made with proper disclosure, subscription documentation, and are subject to all applicable laws. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial, or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of syndication Superstars, LLC exclusively.

Links and Contact Information Mentioned In The Episode:

About Leslie Awasom

Leslie is the Director of Operations and Co-founder of XSITE Capital Investment LLC. He manages the company’s operations, market/data analysis, cash flow, and budget analysis. Leslie is an entrepreneur and real estate investor. He started investing in single-family real estate in 2017 and transitioned to multifamily investing in 2019.
Leslie and his partners at XSITE Capital Investment LLC currently own and manage $168 million worth of Multifamily real estate. In 2021, Leslie founded an E-commerce company and Co-founded a Wellness Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland.
He is a trained nurse anesthetist and obtained his MSc in Nurse Anesthesia from the University of Maryland Baltimore.
Leslie is passionate about building businesses and enjoys adding value to individuals interested in growing their wealth and changing their financial future.
Leslie is a husband and father of a son and two beautiful girls. In his spare time, he loves to read, volunteer, and fly drones.

Are You a Fan? Subscribe, Rate, Review & Share – Click Here To Learn How

What question do you always wish I would ask but I never do?

Connect with the Global Investors Show, Charles Carillo and Harborside Partners:

Scroll to top