The Invested Fathers
The Invested Fathers
IF 89 - How a Young Agent Outsmarted the Market & Built Generational Wealth with Brian Baniqued
Brian Baniqued is a seasoned real estate investor and developer. Brian shares insights into his illustrious real estate career which began in 1991, including his strategic prowess in multifamily properties and the importance of cash flow and investment management. Brian also delves into personal stories, detailing his journey moving from the Philippines to California at an early age, the significance of family, and balancing work with raising his daughter. He discusses the value of passive income, property management, and syndications, shedding light on the intricacies of real estate investments. Brian also gives a glimpse into his full life, which includes participating in American Ninja Warrior and engaging in Comic-Con cosplay with his daughter. The episode offers both practical investment advice and a heartfelt narrative on sustaining personal relationships while managing business success.
Brian Baniqued - Linkedin
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:32 Brian's Real Estate Journey Begins
02:33 Building a Real Estate Empire
04:14 Expanding Beyond California
06:59 Challenges and Strategies in Real Estate
08:30 Personal Background and Early Challenges
11:36 Developing Client Relationships
17:46 Balancing Work and Family Life
22:19 Maintaining Family Bonds Through Shared Interests
23:55 Exploring the World of Cosplay
25:19 Navigating Parenting in the Digital Age
28:11 Family Travels and Celebrations
31:16 Advice for Passive Real Estate Investors
37:53 Syndications and Partnership Models
42:43 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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So you're living from commission, from paycheck to paycheck, you're a starving college student. and I found out like, there's not always four plexes in different areas, in California where I'm from the Bay area, four unit buildings were a pretty prevalent thing as well as duplexes and triplexes. but four units for me, it was the ticket, where I was like, I found that I could buy a four unit building with FHA. And three and a half percent down and I was like, oh I have that And i'm like I could live in one unit and then I my rent's always covered And then I have three three other tenants paying me rent And so i've always got a little bit of something. I don't got to rely on my commissions, which was the biggest pain point, right? You could work on a transaction in real estate and then it would fall apart and so when I got really good at closing very difficult transactions, especially because now I'm not worried about closing the deal because I've got passive cash flow, right? And so all of a sudden that little paradigm shift of not caring whether the deal closed or not, was all of a sudden all the deals are closing
Speaker:invested fathers today. How are you? I'm great, Kenny. Thanks for having me on the show. Brian, we have not known each other for very long. we've met through LinkedIn. you reached out to me, had heard the show, I'd heard some, maybe a reel or two, but I'm so glad you did. You have such an interesting story. I was gonna tell my audience, this guy's done a lot in the real estate world. In regards to developments, building, selling agent. he has a daughter who I think is turning 20 in June. Brian, excited to have you share your story and some lessons learned along the way. Go ahead and give us your, your high level overview of who is Brian Beniquin.
Speaker 2:Okay. Yeah, that's a great question. most people know me from my real estate career, which I started back in 1991 as a real estate agent in high school. and I used it as a way to get my way through college. By the time I finished college, around 1996, I started in 1991. I had, Come a lot more proficient and really good at selling real estate, everything from single family homes to more to an emphasis on multifamily. So started my own company in 1998 and brought on 8 real estate agents who ironically were. Eight of my past clients who I had sold, apartment buildings to and help them how to structure cash flowing entities to pay for their mortgage and have cash flow. and it was something that I practiced myself, right? So I would sell clients, Multiple four unit buildings, 1030 and exchange them into larger and larger buildings. And then, of course, I would sell them a house under the premise that this cash flow would pay for the mortgage on their house and then cover life expects and life expenses, which is precisely why a lot of them ended up retiring or quitting their jobs, getting their real estate license and working with me when I started my office in 1998 at. The age of 25. and so practicing what I preached, I went out and did the same thing, saved up my commissions each time, bought apartment units, always made sure that they cash flowed. And I worked out my little formula between, the amount of down payment. The principal interest taxes, insurance expenses. And I would, look at the cash on cash returns of how much I put down and how much I would make annually after all expenses, which then of course later as I, progressed in, income generating properties would look at debt service, look at, capital capitalization rates or cap rates. I'd look at gross rent multiplier, but that wasn't my big emphasis. And. it was a, something that I carried on throughout my entire career, just in as an entrepreneur, running a real estate office, running a mortgage company, running a property management was always about making sure that my expenses were covered and then, taking the cash flow from my apartment buildings to just create a nice, stable infrastructure. so this whole premise of, Of building cash flow and net worth through owning apartment buildings, turned in turned into a great Vertically integrated business because i'd have clients who'd come i'd sell them apartment buildings i'd sell them houses These clients would become my friends for multiple decades in fact
Speaker 3:A
Speaker 2:lot of my clients have been my clients now for 25 26 plus years, some of their kids when I saw them born are actually working with me now is 22 year olds you know, um nature and I my career back in 2000 took me in multiple directions, right? Because I had I started a real estate office Selling apartment buildings and I'm buying apartment buildings and as I'm going out and looking for more and more cash flow, I'm finding that, and again, I'm maybe just for the audience. I'm California based in Northern California. So the majority of apartment buildings that I bought, and I was fortunate enough to be able to start buying these apartment buildings in 1999, 2000, 2001. We're really great cash flowing entities, but right around the 2002, 2003, 2004, our cap rates would come down because our values would go up, right? Rents would continue to go up. So I found myself and my clients going out into different other states. we sprung, we started in California and platformed out into Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas. Florida, New York, Maine, and again, along the way as I would sell real estate in these different states, apartment units, selling, taking my clients buildings in California Selling them 10 30 when exchanging them into larger and larger buildings. I found myself doing the same thing. So as I would go out and I would represent clients, I found myself buying, 300 units in Texas, 86 units in Tennessee, 150 units in Maine, and. Through my own experience of being an owner, I, I got finally in tune with all of the, the terminologies for cash flow, for debt service, for cap rates. And this is what segwayed my career into being a real estate developer, right? So right around 2004, which is one of the busiest times of my life between 2000 and 2004. I'm just running, multiple businesses. I'm traveling all the time. I started building properties from the ground up and we didn't build apartments for rent because it was. Too difficult to do that, it just wouldn't pencil. But building condominiums in 2004, 2005 was very profitable, right? You'd build. what looked like apartment buildings, but then you just get separate a parcel of parcels for each one and you'd sell them off to individual homeowners. and that was what we would call, creating condos. my first project was a 64 unit condo project and because I had this infrastructure of brokers working with me, we could find good deals. I had a pretty high net worth at that time. And so I would go out and I'd buy the land, get it approved, through the cities to, or what we call entitled, and then building permit ready to build condos. So the first project was 64 units. we, I was the developer on it. I had my agents sell it all off, around, the early two thousands, I also set up my own vertically integrated mortgage company. So as we're selling off these individual units. We're also doing the financing behind it. whenever I'd sell apartment buildings or attempt to exchange them to other places, we would also do the financing for the acquisition on those as well as do the representation. So it, all of a sudden, my, my life is very technical, but it's one big algorithm. you sell a property, you do the loan. You're also at the same time doing your own due diligence for different locations throughout the, throughout California and throughout the state. As to where we could place our money into these cash flowing investments.
Speaker:Brian, let me just do a quick, cause there's a lot that you said, maybe I can unpack half the first half and then maybe 2008 becomes the, like halfway point or transition, first off started at an early age. 25, where are you from?
Speaker 2:So I'm originally from the Philippines
Speaker:and
Speaker 2:came here to California. And I grew up, I'm a California Bay area. Native came here when I was three and a half years old.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker 2:And this is where I call home, California.
Speaker:No, I love it. And, I'm over in South Carolina, so it's a different world all the way over there. But, I do have family. I love California. The, The entrepreneur, like I'm going to figure this out sort of mentality early on. You, bought your own units, kind of practice what you preach. Like you said, as realtor, you're selling things to people, but you're also buying things. I know realtors who have never purchased anything, they've only sold their whole lives and I don't look down on them, but you saw something different and realized, Hey, I can learn how this works and I'm making maybe making money for other investors. I want to invest as well. let me ask you this, the, I have experience in buying single family homes, for the last six years and have learned enough of what I more or less hate doing in regards to renovating and, deal with certain problems. What were some of the pain points for you that forced the different levels of upgrading, that you can remember any stories of just I realized when I, did this for the 10th time, like I would no longer wanted to do this. Anything stick out in your mind is like big obstacles or pain points.
Speaker 2:What prompted me to start buying apartment buildings and getting passive cashflow from rental properties was the pain points of being a real estate agent, working my way through college. In 1991 through 1994, and the reason why it was such huge pain points is financing back then was horrible. you're looking at 10. 5 percent interest rates, 11 percent interest rates, half the deals you'd, put into escrow would fall apart, right? So you're living from commission, from paycheck to paycheck, you're a starving college student. And So in, and I found out like, there's not always four plexes in different areas, in California where I'm from the Bay area, four unit buildings were a pretty prevalent thing as well as duplexes and triplexes. but four units for me, it was the ticket, where I was like, I found that I could buy a four unit building with FHA. And three and a half percent down and I was like, oh I have that And i'm like I could live in one unit and then I my rent's always covered And then I have three three other tenants paying me rent And so i've always got a little bit of something. I don't got to rely on my commissions, which was the biggest pain point, right? You could work on a transaction in real estate and then it would fall apart and so when I got really good at closing very difficult transactions, especially because now I'm not worried about closing the deal because I've got passive cash flow, right? And so all of a sudden that little paradigm shift of not caring whether the deal closed or not, was all of a sudden all the deals are closing and I'm, because I had so many problems that I was dealing with from 91 to 95 cause it was a very, really difficult time in real estate. Now we're going through another difficult time in real estate now. Then that was it.
Speaker:Yeah. And you only know what so as you're figuring things out. Yeah. High interest rates. Oh, horrible time to buy. it's too high of interest rates or maybe normal interest rates. I guess I've heard that, that, 10, 10, 11%, that was normal. Like I've heard higher, but, you can get in
Speaker 2:prices were low. Yes. Because the interest rates were so high. The prices were so low and when I look back, I didn't realize at that time I was buying properties at 10 caps, 11 caps, right? Because nobody wanted them. And so when I would sit there and I first figured out, I was like, Hey, this much down. This much a month, my cash on cash is paid, so I bought a fourplex, and all of a sudden I start sharing this exact thing with all my clients. So instead of, when someone would come to me and say, I, they want to buy a house, I was like, why don't you buy a fourplex first? And then we'll buy it. And then you can buy a house in three to six months, just like I did, right? you just, name of the cash. And I just do the math for them, like this much down, I divvy up their down payment money and say, You could buy 3 percent down with a fourplex, and then buy 5 percent down with a house, and now you'll have a house in four units. And so that, that worked really well for me, because it was a pain point of starving.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then trying to pay for your college, that all of a sudden you're like, okay, I solved my monthly thing, but then all of a sudden I'm helping other people do the same. if you sell a house to a person, they usually don't sell their house until three to five years later. And so you're just constantly reminding them you're there so that they'll remember you. for me, I would sell them two properties in one year within six months, sometimes three. And then they'd remember me because I'd always say, Hey, don't get attached to your two fourplexes I sold you because we'll sell them and we'll 1030 and exchange them as something bigger. And I'll be here with you to, help you build your cashflow. those it's funny because when I would say those things as a 24 year old 25 year old to people, right? And that was a big pain point for me too, because I started young and I'm Asian. So I look young, right? So I when I first got my license, I grew a mustache to look older. Nice. And I wore a fake ring so that people wouldn't ask me how old I was, right? And then if they'd ask, How old are you? And this, back then and I would be, I'd be like, how old do I look? I'd be like, you look. 19. Oh, thanks. That's a great compliment. I'm not even going to tell you how old I am. And so those are little pain points. But then after, after I sold them property and then did them, did the math for them, did these calculations for, for entry and exit strategies, all of a sudden they didn't care how old I was. And they were like, okay, cause whenever they try to ask other realtors, So they just got to me and I'd end up selling on multiple properties. And a lot of these guys ended up becoming my, long time friends. they, like I said, they were the first eight real estate agents that came to work with me in my office when I started it
Speaker:are
Speaker 2:still with me today. years later.
Speaker:That's amazing. No, it was fun. you were the authoritative guide for them, even where if your age was a problem, if they asked around, other people weren't doing it. What I also think is genius is, these properties, you say three to five years. you're selling them investment property. he's don't get attached to it because we're just talking numbers here. And I can make you more money later when we 1031 these. So the relationship is naturally tied to you where you don't have to, send them a birthday card every year. It's Oh, I got a question on how to do this. And what about tax question this? And, Is there any other deals that you see that we could sell that, so that's really cool, Brian.
Speaker 2:that was the whole business model
Speaker 3:is
Speaker 2:they just became very reliant on me. And then, we became close friends and
Speaker 3:a
Speaker 2:lot of the clients. And, they, then I started turning them all to all my, on to all my tax tips and, you know, very complicated tax tips as it turns out from, depreciation, accelerated depreciation, but there were all these great loopholes like sometimes people, we'll talk, like you'll hear Trump talk about these things like where, these write offs that you get as a real estate developer, real estate owner, entrepreneur, and, and, and some people will be like, we'll get mad. And I'm like, and I'm like, that's, you shouldn't be mad. That's what the law allows you to do. And, it's not like you don't pay tax. It's just, you end up, you have other expenses you're paying out significantly, like property taxes and you're creating jobs, but at the same time, you're creating yourself tax shelters. So this information that I would give to people that I didn't know back then I could charge for it. I was just making my real estate commissions. But. A lot of times it was, it didn't matter because I would double end the deals. I have to 90 percent of the time, so I'd make 6 percent and I do the loan. So I was making a significant amount of money to be able to buy my own properties and create my own cashflow. And then I had agents and so I was getting a piece of their action for a long time. and this was before I was fortunate enough to come into real estate as a broker owning a company, at a time when real estate commissions were. we're more closer to 60, 40 or 70, 30 on the residential side. Now you'll see, brokers like taking a 500 fee in some cases, right? On the commercial side, five units or more, running a real estate office, you're still taking 20%, 25, 30 percent of the deal. So it still makes it worthwhile, but it's, it goes through its cycles, right? Yeah,
Speaker:that's really cool, Brian. and then you talked about building those relationships with those people for years. you have to be the right person. they always say real estate is a, as a team sport and it's a relationship game, which I could argue is any successful role is a relationship business. no one is able to do everything by themselves, but I love that you were able to incorporate that culture. and those relationships early on and see the fruits of your labor. it makes sense, right? To keep up with these people and treat them right. And they treat you right. And, really cool business model.
Speaker 2:it was some of the busiest times in my life between 2000 and 2007. at that time I got married. I'm still with my wife. We're going to celebrate our 25th year to this September. And, when we grew the, the business into two real estate offices with 80 real estate agents, 40 alone officers, like 25 support staff. And this was a time where everything was paper driven, And so we, we'd have great big parties every year, the office was a very busy, place to be because back then we didn't have zoom. We'd all be in the same place. Now, the office did have its share of, Politics and things of that nature. and, we had lots of young, attractive people all working together so that the office had its fair share of scandals. But, thankfully my wife and I, stayed true to each other, yeah, it made for interesting drama, but, look at looking back. it's a it's a very different time comparing it to an office. That's very zoom oriented. Now, most of my agents don't show up to the office anymore. we're, we're on zoom on email. I'm fortunate enough to have bought the office complex that I still have my office in. I have a physical office, but there's only four or five of us to report in here now, whereas everyone's on zoom and via email. but I've had that, I've been able to, looking back, experience all kinds of really cool things over the, because of this career in real estate and investing and, the travel that goes along with it.
Speaker:for sake of time, I'm going to shift the conversation, but, we're going to probably revisit the business side of life toward the end again. you mentioned, you got married between what? 2000, 2007. Your daughter's going to be 20. So that means she was born Uh, 2003, 2005. Okay. Okay. and, a lot of the show, obviously podcast called the invested fathers, I'm trying to bring on people to challenge the mindset of, you gotta choose it's your business or it's your family, can you have both? And there are obviously times along the way it gets hard and it gets muddy and there's seasons to just work, but share with us some of the lessons learned or. the experience of having a daughter and trying to be winning at home and at work. And, what we can learn from your story on that.
Speaker 2:when my wife and I first got married in 2000, she was from New York and we had a long distance, romance. And so she worked in the fashion industry of New York, which there is not a fashion industry in California. So she came to work with me in the office. Now, from my perspective, the first five years before we had our daughter, you know was a whirlwind of work in the office But it was work hard play hard and my wife and I did lots of traveling and partying and you know We're a young couple, right? And I look back at that very fondly now. My wife is she's we should have spent more quality time together at home, and so I, she's always been there to remind me of that. And so it's like trying to create that, like that balance of working hard. Like I'm naturally an A type personality. And so I'm like, awesomely on the go, especially back then in hindsight, but trying to listen to my wife to, To be, help keep me more grounded, because I would always, take a step back at first and go, okay, you're not as great as you think, and you can work on some things, right? And so that, that kind of helped keep me grounded. So by the time, we started trying to have our daughter and finally had our daughter in 2005, my, my wife had been there with me in the office working hand in hand for those first. five years that after she had her daughter, she decided to take a step back and raise our daughter. And so I'm here running two, two offices, 80 agents, 40 loan officers. And, and right about that time, 2006, 2007, it started to begin to, really hit its peak and crescendo just before everything went to hell in a handbasket in 2008. Looking back, we all look at that, we call it the Great Recession. And in fact, there was a movie called The Big Short. Where I was like, Oh my God, I relate to that movie so much because I see so many of those locations and I remember I was there. I was working with Lehman Brothers on some deals you know, that I hear that they've gone out of business. And so I bring that into the. Context because right about that time when my wife is at home raising the daughter and working Our time all these different things are hitting us and so trying to keep that work balance, life schedule really became a lot of acrobatics, right? Because you're trying to make sure you take the time to come home, have dinner, spend time with your daughter, at that time, smartphones were just really becoming a thing, right? Everyone was still on your little old dial phones and you have your Palm Pilots. And so there's, there was a lot of juggling, but, looking back at it, I'm glad that I did and I'm glad that we stuck to it because my wife and I, always making the point to have come home and have dinner with each other. Now, for me, when we had dinner with each other, at least twice or three times a week, that was a big deal, right? or have breakfast every now and then. but looking back now in 2025, my, my daughter's going to be 20. My wife and I are still together because we spent that time to really, Pay attention to our daughter. Pay attention to each other. see each other at work. my wife still continues to help me, from home and sometimes in the office to manage things. but now things are a lot different than they were back when we, there was this huge office, atmosphere. And everyone saw each other because we all physically met. that whole dynamic has changed. But, throughout it, we've been able to roll with the punches just because. we've made that commitment to stay with each other and also to raise our daughter and to give her, good, strong Christian values and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And if it wasn't for that work of trying to make that happen, it would be really easy for me to just neglect that and just, make it all work. and I've seen some of my friends do that. to their detriment, right? they end up in divorce, she gets half, it's bitter, they're off to their second marriage, and that's one of those things where, and again, it hasn't been pretty, it hasn't been easy every step of the way, right? There's been lots of arguments, lots of talking, through things, and at the end of the day, you just kind Getting back together, but it's been really great for our daughter And I because like we always make a point as a family to take multiple trips like my I'm a huge nerd for example and so one of the things that kind of kept us together was my daughter and I my wife would go to a San Diego comic con every year we dress up in cosplay and all this kind of stuff and so You know keeping the whole physical fitness as a major part of my life helped a lot, too but it was also great for like You know wearing cosplay outfits where you're trying to look like a ripped superhero, right? And so Those being able to do that being able to go to work and play hard You know with my wife and my daughter in like these kind of fun contexts also kept things really cohesive in the family So like my daughter and I we still And my wife won't cause play with us, but she will make that, being in the fashion industry that, which is her original job. She's really cool at being able to design great cause play outfits for my daughter and I, and then be that cheerleader. And so that's been a big piece of how do we keep the family together and travel and do nerdy things.
Speaker:Yeah, okay, forgive me. Cosplay. I'm unfamiliar with the term. I actually have some relatives in San Fran who are into Comic Con as well. They've dressed up as Batman and all sorts of other stuff. What is cosplay?
Speaker 2:So cosplay is dressing up. Costume play?
Speaker:Costume. Costume.
Speaker 2:yeah. So when you hear, we used to hear the word cosplay. It's usually associated to nerdy comic book conventions where people will Create their own costumes and dress up as a superhero or some character that they like and San Diego Comic Con Hat is like a Mardi Gras of You know of the comic con world. Yeah, so it's one big gigantic party, you know from Wednesday to Sunday you'll see lots of a lot of the actors would come out for the movies that you see, and then they throw parties and we'd make a point to try to get into these parties, and things like that. So
Speaker:I love it. No, that's great. And there's, I feel like there's just a time for that. There's a time when, your kids aren't going to be with you forever. And, if you can join them. In their own, exciting things that they like doing. It's the best. we're in, I, my son is eight right now. So we're into basketball, but, teaching them a turnaround spin shot. And seeing them do it in the game, it just brings so much joy.
Speaker 3:yeah,
Speaker:really cool. I actually would like to speak a little more into, this stage of life for you with your daughter, actually, specifically. She's 20. you're probably seeing, like you've said, life was dramatic and full of people and all that good stuff back in the day with zoom and other things and COVID and what everything else it's probably dramatically changed. what are some things right now that you're intentionally trying to do as a dad and as this season of life, just been. Just all new to you in light of her getting older, or is she, staying home more or what is the role shifted to in the last, year or two?
Speaker 2:Oh, no, great, good question. when she started high school, COVID had just started, so she grew up in that zoom culture. Now, before that, she's our only daughter. So she's always gone with. and I everywhere and we brought her into the office. And so I've actually had her come in and intern with my business partner on the property management side.
Speaker 3:And so
Speaker 2:she's learned things. I, now, I didn't want to cram down real estate down the road, giving her exposed to it to see if that's something she wants to do. And cause then that way, you know, it'll be more natural. And so we've had that fortune of being able to bring her in and expose her to all these things and expose her to the different people that work here. So she's grown up seeing the different brokers and agents that work with me, the staff that have worked with me, and they've seen her grow up as well. And so our big thing has always just been, as a family to, again, I come from a big family, whereas my, my, we just have one daughter. I'm like the oldest out of five. So we always make a point to go to all our family gathering events. I'm fortunate enough to have my, my, my parents and my four other siblings all within 10 minutes of me. So we all just, settled in the Bay area. we, like we travel a lot, but, we were fortunate enough to be in the, in California and in the Bay area where we, the enjoyment of travel is great, but for me, it's always good to come home. And so I think that was also why they. They didn't, venture off abroad. And we make a whole point to like, see all her cousins and my parents. And then, now that she's going through college and, going through her general ed, she's, she's still, she still comes in. Thankfully, because of the Zoom culture, we still get a lot done. It's just not as. As, in the office as much. and because, I've had all these years of experience that, I've become pretty adept with the technology. And so I'll be trying to pass that on to my daughter as well. for her, we need to have to pass it on. It's that was the culture she grew up in. like she'll have, she actually, her best friends in Maryland, and then she sees her like three or four times a year, they'll go to concerts together. We'll go on trips, but these two are always on zoom. It's not like I grew up where I would go down to my buddy's house. Down the street,
Speaker 3:right?
Speaker 2:That was the thing. and so here is that's been great because when we do travel and we do physically go out It's always some kind of an event one of one of my brokers who's been with me since 2011 a single guy Finally got him married off, right? So he got married good looking guy, but I mean he finally settled down and so yeah, He and his wife threw this big, huge destination wedding to Cartagena, Colombia. And my daughter had just turned, 19 at the time, she's going to be 20 in June. And we go out to Cartagena, Colombia for one of my broker's weddings. And she's it's a very festive event, right? my, this, my, my associate, he, had a huge, it was the best thing to describe it would be like a rave, right? He has a music festival raid. And my daughter's sitting there, with her parents, enjoying this reception in a different country, and she's seeing us party, right? She's seeing us, and it's a reception, but, just because my, my, the guy who's been with me for a while, who's throwing this wedding, he's, he's just into the whole music festival scene, very hip guy. He and his wife look like. the wedding party looked like something out of the bachelor, right? Beautiful wedding party. And, so my, my, my daughter got to interact with that and, and see, and this was a guy who she's always seen grow up, as this single broker, who, you know, Highfalutin guy who's with, who's been with her dad, since 2011 and, and, I, he, she knows who he is and, but she's able to experience all these different, facets of life and see people who've been with me come full circle from, getting married and still, and having kids and things like that. that's been a pretty good influence on her to keep her really grounded as well as keep us close to her. Um, I see like how some other parents, when their daughters become teenagers, they become really rebellious. They become really, Oh, I don't want to hang out with my parents. We've had quite the opposite experience. Thank goodness.
Speaker:Oh, man, that's awesome. No, I love that story. I love she saw you party the way you put that, because I've sort of realized over the last I don't know, a few weeks, months, a guy said to me, we see our kids change so much physically, they're babies and they're walking and they're talking and, they just, it's every year is a big change. And as parents, we're not necessarily looking different, but we're changing too, with different things that, we're learning and different stages of life are getting older. We got to work out a little bit more, we, whatever it is, the business is growing. So we're adapting as well. And. It's such a beautiful story of how, Hey, as your daughter's grown, she hasn't necessarily been repelled by your guys's, staunch, whatever, that's my dad, they're embarrassing or whatever you're bringing her with you to the comic con. You're she's seeing you dance. there's a relationship that's just continuing to grow. Even during those, harder years of teenagers and, she'll be 20 soon and all those key moments. So Brian, thanks so much for sharing all that.
Speaker 2:Oh, no problem. No problem.
Speaker:one of the questions I try to get in here, I don't always have active real estate investors with me. sometimes it's just a busy professional, salesmen, some entrepreneurs to some degree, business owners. But I love that you've saw the light. I think off camera, we were talking about you, you studied biology back in the day, what a shift in what you ended up doing. Some advice to passive investors out there. Cause I feel like that is, my, that's my target audience is the, not necessarily the other active real estate investor. It's the one who's just saying, Hey Kenny, I love your values. I love what you're doing. Real estate, maybe trying to get into it. Like even earlier on, I love that you broke down some things more educationally, but, I've got to, I've got to think you've worked with a lot of banks and private money lenders. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Lots of experience with banks and, and private lenders. Yes.
Speaker:Yes. So in your tenure of working 20 plus years in real estate and working with multiple passive investors, what takeaways that you could give? Are there, words of encouragement or, obstacles that you've seen people say, ah, I want to invest, but this and how you've. Maybe help them get into it or some things that, that passive investors can look for to feel more confident to get into real estate.
Speaker 2:great question. So one of the things that I always would do with each investor is sit down with them and just lay out all the cards on the table, look at how much. money they're working with, what kind of career they're currently at, how much time they have to devote to owning real estate, right? And, one of the things I always encourage them to do is buy something with more units. I have some clients, for example, That when I would meet them, they'd have lots of single family homes
Speaker 3:that
Speaker 2:they bought and owned free and clear. And I would just do this simple math with them as to what kind of return they're getting on the current value versus the annual income. And I would sit down and give them a lot of education first, right? So I would give them, what is a good real estate investment based on a cap rate, based on a debt service? What is debt service, right? What does this mean to a lender? what do these different types of recourse or non recourse loans And then more importantly, just give them a roadmap of here's what you're looking for. When we find this act quick. and you're, when we go into contract, I'm not going to pressure you, but I would suggest shoot first. We could always ask questions later because that's what we're going to do during the due diligence period. And we know in a contract, we've always got the opportunity to get out if something is bad, but usually in real estate. There's always a way to get around the bad, and always prepare them like it's not always going to be immediately passive. This is not going to be mailbox money, right? as I prepare them for these expectations, and then give them, a strategy for getting into it, but then also, giving them that bigger picture of the exit. what is the end goal behind this? And that's something I'd always ask is what are you, why are you doing this? And if the goal is to, create some passive cash flow, then what does that mean to you? What, how much money do you need to be able to, cover expenses? And so I would just do sit there and do well. What are your current expenses now, what are your expenses on a house? This is what I would do like back in the day in the early in the late 90s, right? And so once we went through that process, a lot of my clients or investors would at least have some, peace of mind where they had a sequence of events and things to follow so they could check the box as opposed to being unknown. And, when, and so they'd come to that realization that, Hey, it's not. So much the interest rate because if you're going to a private money lender, you might be paying hard money and it might be much higher than normal, but then you're looking at the big picture. is this a property that I wouldn't be able to acquire? under regular financing and if I take it under a private money lender where maybe it might be a higher rate Why am I doing that and what is my end goal so that at some point I could get a lower rate, right? Like I you know So I'm just give them that entry and exit strategy depending on whatever the asset class might be So in some markets, I've been doing this it's 34 years So I've seen some markets where you know, you're going in with it, you know a lot of risk And then sometimes it becomes more turnkey and then of course it gets heated up and then you know, The returns get less and you always go through these various cycles, right? and so as I give them that big picture, that's one of the other sequences or guides that I'll give them so that way they know what to expect and they can have a little bit more peace of mind. And then also have that goal where they want to be at, where they could, where it becomes more passive. Um, and also get making sure that they've got the proper property management in place and and someone that they could trust, unless they were gonna, do it all by themselves. And I've had a mixture of both. I've had some clients where they they don't like 50 units and they'd still want it to be the person to go there and sweep the floors. in fact, we have some clients where we manage the property for them, but they just like to show up to the property and just,
Speaker:tinker.
Speaker 2:And then there's others who are just very passive and are out traveling. And so it's, you get that mixture of both.
Speaker:Yeah, no, that's fabulous. I, I, you've seen it all. It sounds I'm, like I said, six years in, you said 30 to 40 years. And I just know firsthand as a active real estate investor, it has been very difficult to sometimes get these properties renovated. And I'm talking single family homes. So there is a big shift that happens. I would actually say for the easier, When you're buying bigger, because you can do things at scale, hire crews that are more qualified and able to fix up, 10, plus units versus I'm trying to find someone just to. update the kitchen or, do these things. really cool insights on that. And you've been able to even help other active investors get in half active, half passive with these other companies you built. And, I guess as a quick followup, would you say the ones that are looking for, Hey, want to be purely passive here, this development project you're doing, or, other types of like syndications or group investing. Has that been like the, fountain of living water or the golden goose that you can say, Hey, here's a way to be a part owner of this deal without, being the landlord and managing these things. Have you had success with that pitch?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have, yeah. We've, so we, you're syndications, right? Where. I have had some clients go, listen, I don't want to own the property. Can I just invest with you as a passive investor? And I have set up syndications where I'll come on as the general partner. I'll take on individual limited partners. Some are accredited investors, some are not. And then long story short, what we're doing is we're aggregating the cash for the down payment and the closing cost to acquire say like a 50 unit or a 20 unit. And then we have again, entry and exit strategy. Here's what you would can expect to make with this. Pro rata share of the down payment and your pro rata share of the ownership and your pro rata share of the distribution and We'll have it underwritten in such a way where they're not having to worry about the complicated bank loan which Usually because of my balance sheet and my experience i'm getting preferential treatment on interest rates and loans More acquisitions and then they're just getting a paycheck Every month or every quarter. Now they, full disclosure, sometimes, buildings don't always go good. And, we might, go for a few months without a distribution because that, a turnover phase or, Or value add phase before, as we're repositioning a building, but regardless, at least they're not having to, go through all the whole slings and arrows and go on now they'll get detailed reports on what's happening before these things turn around. And so that's been a pretty successful, thing for people who just want to own passively. I've also engaged that in some of my development deals. Like when I first built the 64 unit condo. I didn't do it with all my own money. I was the person that stood up for the construction loan, but I raised the down payment from a lot of my clients. who I'd sold apartment buildings to and built their portfolio. And when I first did that syndication for limited partners back in 2004, it was a time before the whole 501 C, regs came in that allow you to, reach out and advertise. And so you'd have to just deal only with your, friends of friends and people you knew directly,
Speaker 3:but
Speaker 2:same rules of engagement. And so as that whole, Syndication and partnership model has evolved. Like you'll see like the likes of Grant Cardone who, go out and raise capital publicly from a concert, under reggae. and then they'll use that to go out and buy invest. we, I've not done anything to his degree or his, his size. I've kept it relatively modest in comparison, but I've had that. I'm fortunate being able to start out a lot earlier, like I did my first one in 2004, my first syndication, now I've translated that into also just owning property and then distributing passively, so that we're not yeah. looking to have that big, huge distribution. Like when we did the first partnership in 2004 under that, it was under the premise of we're going to buy this, we're going to build it and we're going to sell it for a huge profit. And the funny thing is when I did that first one and I look back, we actually had a huge, like 69 percent return, 70 percent return. And back then I was it was too young and naive to know, Hey, I didn't have to give out that much distribution, but it was really good because it set a wrong expectation, on the third one, and Oh my gosh, you only got a 20 percent return on this one, but no, of course, at that point, after a certain point, people started realizing like, okay, Hey. 15, 18%, 20 percent returns or act, internal rates of return are actually a good thing. Really good. but it was one of those learning curves where, you know, where you realize you knocked one out of the ballpark, but you didn't know that you're not going to the ballpark. So by the next time you do, what should be a normal one, people are like, Hey, what happened? It's not as big as the last one, Yeah. So those are different things that, you know, I, that kind of learned along the way and kind of pass on the investor. So now I know how to Hey, there's, this is what we can expect as the returns. And, and you can, and again, we're comparing these returns. So like other vehicles, how much would you make if you'd left your money in a savings account or in a money market or in a mutual fund or in, different stocks, what do you get? And so that it was again, that whole education process of getting people to understand the benefits of real estate, where you can make a cashflow, but get. A write off versus if I'm investing in stock and I sell a piece of stock I have nothing to shelter that gain, right? Tax at a higher rate and it is what it is Real estate gave us that that really great benefit of having the cash having the appreciation And having something to shelter taxation
Speaker:Beautifully said love it brian. You're a wealth of knowledge man. We're out of time i'll just give my audience a small teaser I don't know if you have anything posted on your linkedin or whatnot, but he's also american ninja warrior man I know you did competitions and whatnot in there, you mentioned the cause, cosplay with your shirt off and whatnot. So post this stuff up so our audience can
Speaker 2:check you out. If not, if you Google my name and hit images, you'll see a whole bunch of those. You'll see me here on, on the movie I produce, you'll see me, you'll see me dressed up as a Spartan 300 warrior. I love it, man. there's enough images out there. So you'll see them.
Speaker:you are
Speaker 2:pretty unique. So you can't, it's you'll go, Oh, that's the guy.
Speaker:I love it. That's right. That's right. Bye. Brian Beniquid. Brian, you are living a very full life, my friend. Thank you so much for taking time to share your journey with us today and some of those values. My pleasure, Kenny, that you focused on. if our audience did want to connect with you, for anything, how would you
Speaker 2:direct them? the easiest way is go to my website, www.bcre.co at, so Bravo, Charlie Romeo Echo. And it's a.co. So it's just.co. If you google my name and hit images, you'll, you can. You can find me through my real estate company. you could also hit me up on LinkedIn. A lot of people will find me on LinkedIn and DM me. but, the easiest way to just go through my website, there's a little consultation page that you could fill out and, one of my assistant Mark or show what will probably retrieve the call and set up a meeting or something like that.
Speaker:Cool. Brian, thanks for being on the invested fathers today to all my audience out there. Invest wisely. Thanks Brian. Thanks for having me, Kenny.