From Cold Calls at 17 to $1 Billion in Real Estate Deals | Jonathan Zamir - EP20

In this episode of The Wealth Clock podcast with Steven Weinstock, I’m joined by Jonathan Zamir, founder and CEO of Keystone Equities. Jonathan has led more than $1 billion in transactions and helped create the Professionals of Real Estate Forum, a networking group that has facilitated over $10 billion in deals. 

We talk about:  
- How Keystone Equities scaled from a small office to a billion-dollar investment platform  
- Why Jonathan pivoted from equity to credit and how he finds value in today’s market  
- His “Four Ways to Buy a Great Real Estate Deal” framework  
- Investing in New York City vs tier-two growth markets like Miami, Nashville, and Austin  
- The critical role of relationships and networking in closing major deals  
- Lessons for young entrepreneurs raising capital and launching their first real estate projects  

This conversation blends market insights with practical advice for investors, operators, and anyone looking to understand the credit and equity sides of real estate.  

📌 Connect with Jonathan Zamir:  
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanzamir/  
Website: https://keystoneequitiesllc.com  

📌 Connect with Steven Weinstock:  
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenweinstock  
Website: https://goethalscapitalfund.com  

🎙️ About The Wealth Clock Podcast with Steven Weinstock:  
I’ve been investing in real estate for over 20 years, from single-family homes to multifamily properties, and launched my own real estate investment fund. This podcast is where top operators, founders, and closers share what really works in business and investing.  

If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review. It helps us reach more listeners and keep delivering valuable conversations.  

#realestate #investing #creditinvesting #multifamily #WealthClockPodcast

🎙 About Steven Weinstock
Steven Weinstock is a real estate investor and founder of WeCapital and the Goethals Capital Fund. Since 2001, he has built a diverse portfolio of residential and multifamily assets while helping investors access passive income through strategic real estate opportunities. On this podcast, he shares real-world insights on investing, capital raising, and what it really takes to build and scale in today’s market.

📩 Want to invest or get in touch?
Visit: www.WeCapitalX.com

📱 Connect with Steven:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevenweinstock1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wecapitalx/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWealthClockPodcast

Transcript

Steven Weinstock: 0:01

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Wealth Clock with Steven Weinstock. Today I'm joined by Jonathan Zamir, founder and CEO of Keystone Equities, a private real estate investment platform focused on credit and equity strategies. Under Jonathan's leadership, Keystone has closed more than a billion, or is that even more than that? I think I saw more than a billion.

Jonathan Zamir: 0:26

So a little over a billion.

Steven Weinstock: 0:27

A little over a billion, okay. Has closed more than a billion dollars in transactions. Building a strong track record of structuring complex and special situation deals while forging partnerships with institutional capital partners. He's also the founder of Professionals of Real Estate Forum, a networking group that facilitated more than$10 billion in transactions. 10 billion.

Jonathan Zamir: 0:55

I'd say it's well above that now. Yeah.

Steven Weinstock: 0:56

Okay. And he serves on the board of the Combat Antisemitism Movement. Jonathan, I'm really excited to have you here today. Welcome to the show.

Jonathan Zamir: 1:05

Honored to be here. Thank you.

Steven Weinstock: 1:07

All right, Jonathan. First, tell me where you're from, where'd you grow up?

Jonathan Zamir: 1:11

All right. I'm born and raised in Manhattan. In the heart of it all, I grew up on the Upper East Side. I went to Ramaz school that was also on the Upper East Side, Yeshiva over there. And I continued, I actually went to NYU Stern, the business school in the city. So the one rule I had was if I'm going to NYU I'm gonna study abroad one semester. And I did do that. I went to, florence, Italy, which was an amazing experience. And I've always grown up in this city. Ironically I've moved out since I, I now live in Great Neck long Island with my wife and three beautiful children. Thank God.

Steven Weinstock: 1:42

Wow, nice. A true New Yorker. What's the first job you ever had?

Jonathan Zamir: 1:48

The first job I ever had through a family friend, I got to I got introduced to a brokerage company and I was 17 years old. It was a summer job, and they basically took what was at the time of the Big Blue book. I don't know if you remember what that was, but that before the internet really was out there, they had the big blue book that had every owner's phone number and. They basically put me at a desk, slammed the book on the desk and just opened to a random page pointed and said, start calling. And so I just started calling every single owner across Manhattan, asking 'em if they were interested in selling their building. And it was actually an amazing experience because it, as someone that's relatively sensitive it desensitized me for better or for worse because when you have people slamming the phone on you saying, stop calling me, or, leave me alone. It taught me that you go through all that hard work, but the one person outta the couple of hundred that you call when they say they're actually interested, it makes it all worth it. And it was it was really an amazing experience. Ironically, you had to go through the crap, so to speak, in order to learn it. But it was really exciting. And that was my first job there.

Steven Weinstock: 2:51

Persistence definitely pays off in this business. So good for you. When did you, let's fast forward. When did you start Keystone?

Jonathan Zamir: 2:59

I started Keystone a little over a decade ago. I was around just over 30 years old. And I had worked prior to that for a very large developer who taught me a lot of the street smarts. And then I worked for a family office that taught me the book smarts on how to price risk and how to capitalize a deal. And I felt I could combine the two of those to really create a company. That was dynamic and a bit unique and well positioned and we got lucky early we started buying stuff in New York City and Manhattan.

, Steven Weinstock: 3:27

Let's break down exactly what Keystone does. Are you buying property? Are you acting as landlords? Are you facilitating loans and debt? Just give us a quick breakdown.

Jonathan Zamir: 3:38

Yeah it's a great question. So when we started Keystone Equities, we were strictly an equity platform. We were buying assets, repositioning them and generally selling them we could refinance them. And, we started off mostly in retail and office. We subsequently grew into every asset class other than hospitality. And what went from being focused strictly in Manhattan, we started expanding into Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Long Island City. And then about seven years ago, I started focusing a little bit more on tier two high growth markets outside of New York. And I could talk about my investment thesis, why we did that. But long story short, about five years ago I did a hard pullback from equity just 'cause I wasn't seeing much value. Which actually worked out really well for us. Thank God. We avoided a lot more pain than we could have in the market. Made us look a lot smarter than we are. But it was two years ago that, when prices had reset, I felt there was an opportunity again, and we started getting into credit. A lot of capital stacks were upside down. And what we realized was, people say, are you in the equity or credit side of the business? I think there's a gray area these days.'cause if you're buying defaulted notes, for example, you're buying debt, is that equity? We bought a $60 million note, and then what we realized was you could actually lend in the market today and make what we're historically e equity like returns with credit, like risk and credit instruments, which was really attractive to us. So we got really active in credit. In the last 18 months or so, we've done about half a billion dollars worth of loans. So we've been active on that side as well. And I'd say probably 70% of our time right now is on the credit side and 30% is on the equity side. But that, that shifts often depending on where the market dynamics are.'cause right now we're seeing a lot more people playing in credit and it's getting a lot more competitive.

Steven Weinstock: 5:21

Where are you investing outside of New York City? On the suburbs. In the

Jonathan Zamir: 5:26

suburbs specifically, or you're saying across the country?

Steven Weinstock: 5:29

Across the country. Outside of this area.

Jonathan Zamir: 5:32

So across the country there are certain, we're at this point somewhat agnostic on the lending side. As long as we like, as long as we can, like the underlying fundamentals in the asset and can get comfortable with the market. But obviously we like the tier two higher growth markets. Miami now is probably considered tier one market. We definitely do like Miami. We're obviously mindful of the, the amount of supply there and everything else. But there are markets, when we started focusing on tier two markets. You're seeing employees would rather live where there's a good quality of life and a good cost of living. And the employers had historically followed the employees. It's a little, a lot different now after COVID where people work remotely a lot more often. But still, you see a lot more people in the. Austins the Nashvilles the markets that you've heard about. We certainly like those markets. We continue to we're just mindful and on the equity side it's a bit riskier just given the profile, so we really gotta get a little bit more comfortable there.

Steven Weinstock: 6:28

When you started at Keystone day one, were you backed by investors? Were you using your windfall from. A previous job. How were you were you bootstrapping? What was the plan right away?

Jonathan Zamir: 6:41

No, it's really funny. When I started Keystone Equities, I rented an office in my cousin's office, which was used to be a closet, no, no windows. And I remember it, 'cause what I did was I just hustle. I have a list of people I wanted to reach out to and call, and I just pounded the phones and pounded the streets looking around at where I saw opportunity. But had I known what I know now, I think I would, I would tell you it's a very, it would've, it was a pretty risky proposition. I had a lot of relationships, thank God. But at the same time, I didn't know if they would back me. And there's a very funny story, but it's a little bit of a longer story about how I transitioned. But suffice to say I met one individual person that believed in me and she was willing to essentially back me. And the difference between, from Stone Edge wonderful gentleman always says, line says, what's the difference between a broker and an owner? And I said, what is it? He said, an owner can raise money. You can solve for execution, you can build a team around it. It's about being able to raise capital and the day that one investor who's building I ironically had sold when I went out on my own I inadvertently sold her building for her and she said, I really like you and I think you're smart and I wanna see what else you're working on. I showed her a deal that was a$20 million deal, and she put up a million dollar deposit for me. And that changed my business because the day that happened, I went to an institutional fund that ended up liking the value we created on the deal and offered to buy the entire cash with us,$20 million, all cash without any loan. And we went from there and it just grew from there. But I had a Rolodex of context, long story short, but. I didn't know if they would back me. And I think if you create enough value in any deal, you'll find the money. It's more a function of being able to find the arb in an asset that you're acquiring.

Steven Weinstock: 8:25

I read somewhere that you created a framework called, tell Me If I have this the Four Ways to Buy. A great real estate deal. Yeah. Did I get that right?

Jonathan Zamir: 8:36

Yeah. I really I, one of the things I like to do and I work with a business coach who always encourages me to go back and look at what I've accomplished in the past and learn from my mistakes, and also just try to build on whatever successes I've had. And that exercise is a really powerful exercise. I actually encourage everybody to try to do that when they can and if they can. But when you look at the deals that we've done or that I think anybody's done, it really comes down to one of four categories in my humble opinion. Number one is an off market deal where the owner just doesn't know what they have. And it's harder and harder to do that these days because the Internet's out there. Brokers are calling every owner. It's very easy for them to understand what the value of their asset is. I've done off market deals. It's just hard to build a business that way because they're harder and harder to come by. Number two is you have an amazing relationship with the broker. You know the broker's gonna give you first look, last look. He's gonna basically, help you get to that deal better than others. But that's a difficult proposition because brokers have a lot of relationships and if the deal is that good, someone else may come and get it. The third one is having an angle, and I think this is where the most value is created. If you can build cheaper, if you can look at a deal differently than others, if you have a tenant in your pocket ready to go, you can create value. We had an asset that we bought for $41 million. Before we bought the asset, we had a lease held in escrow for the second largest bank in the world that was naming the building their US headquarters. They signed a lease with us for $1.8 million triple net, just for the retail. We bought the building for $41 million and then within six months of buying it, we sold the retail alone for 36. I put it on the market for 40, but everybody told me I should fly a cut 'cause I just bought the whole building for 41. But it created value and being able to have an angle like that, it gives you arbitrage that really lets you pay more than others, but know that you're mitigating risk at the same time. That is where I think operators on the equity side have the biggest advantage. And then the last one is just having the most aggressive capital or capital that really aligns in an investment thesis and is willing to put their money where their mouth is. You have some big groups that are really bullish on certain asset classes or certain geographies, and they're willing to underwrite more aggressive rent growth or tighter cap rates. They have a thesis there. So they're willing to pay more than others. But if you look at any deal that's done by anybody, it generally falls into one of those four categories. And the reason why that's important is because if you recognize where your value is, you can focus on one of those four categories and optimizing the way you're executing within them.

Steven Weinstock: 11:13

Are you bullish on New York City? No. Are you saying that as a landlord or as a first lien holder on property?

Jonathan Zamir: 11:24

I'm saying it's a great question. I'm saying it as a landlord. But I want to clarify my answer. Sure. I think I think mamdani poses a really big risk to the city. I think the re the city already has big issues. You've looked at. People don't talk about it the same way, but obviously you look at the rent regulate regulatory environment and stabilization and there are owners that have owned these assets for many years. A lot of 'em have been wiped. And it's not because they've done anything wrong here. It's because the laws fundamentally don't work when you have rents that you can't grow fast enough to catch up with your expenses. It's a depreciating asset. It's a ticking time bomb. And I understand the whole concept of. Affordability. But the reality is what's happened with the regulatory environment is it's created this. The opposite effect landlords now are inventorying units where they don't even rent them.'cause it's not worth renovating them if they're not gonna get paid for them. And the result is you're seeing it now. Rents have gone free market rents have gone up, incredibly high. And so if Ani does what he wants to do, it's just gonna make the situation worse. New York is gonna get increasingly unaffordable. I think there's a. Contrarian opportunity actually for investors to invest in free market assets. Because if he wins and he tries to do what it is that he says he is gonna do there's just gonna be less product available for individuals on the rental side and it's gonna get more and more expensive. So I, the reason why I'm bearish is because I think the budget in New York has major issues. I think Momani does not know how to balance a budget because he doesn't have the experience to do that. That. With respect, but I'm being completely genuine. And I think that New York generates a vast majority of its income from real estate taxes. And if you start to see what's gonna happen to the budget, taxes are gonna go up immensely on real estate. And it's just going to, feed itself where we have to generate even more revenue than than we have. And if you can't raise the rents, it doesn't work other. And if you can, you're gonna raise the rents just to make up for those expenses.

Steven Weinstock: 13:32

If somebody was coming to you for advice, a young 25-year-old, 28-year-old, and he was putting together his first deal he has, I don't know, $5 million committed from family, friends his network. He wants to buy a 15 or $20 million residential property. Would you tell him to avoid New York City?

Jonathan Zamir: 13:57

Not necessarily. I think I would tell him to just have a thesis as to what it is he is investing in. I think it really depends what you're investing in. Asset classes are different. And I do think New York is New York. I do think there's a value to be as bad as mamdani may be if he wins. You gotta go through difficult times in order for people to turn back around. The pendulum swings the other way. So if you have a long term purview and you're considering, investing from a long term perspective. It might come back the other way. PE people might realize we made a mistake and look at San Fran and other places that really have gone through a difficult time. The problem there is if you're gonna have to hold onto an asset for a long time, you're not gonna get paid. And I think one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is they don't do the math. And I know that sounds really odd, but the reality is, I've sat with a lot of young guys. They're looking to go out on their own. The first thing I ask them is. Tell me your business plan and the response is, I'm gonna go buy buildings. And I'm like, okay, let's do the math. And if I said, okay, if you buy a five or $10 million deal, is that good? They're like, yeah, that's great. I said, okay. Let's say you buy two of them and then we do the math. I'm like, okay, you make an acquisition fee, but that has to go into the deal because your, your partners wanna know you have skin in the game. Your asset management fee is minimal. It's barely gonna cover an individual. So you're gonna, but you're gonna need to hire somebody or else you're gonna be stuck running these properties and you won't be able to have the time to find a new deal. And your hope and expectation is that you're going to be able to exit, and earn or promote. But the world doesn't necessarily work that way. I've, I'm now old enough where I've gone through a lot of. Ups and downs, and I've seen people that have done everything right when it comes to the execution of the business plan, but the macro market just crashed on them, so it's really difficult. And so I would tell people to just really think through what their investment thesis is and how long that investment horizon is because it's critical.

Steven Weinstock: 15:57

What do you do when you're not focused on real estate? What do you do for fun?

Jonathan Zamir: 16:00

I love my family first and foremost. I'm blessed with three amazing children. Today's my daughter's seventh birthday, so ninth birthday. Thank you. But in addition to that, I love playing sports and spending time with friends, between tennis and soccer and other sports. That's always been a passion of mine. I like to read when I can. It's more a matter of finding the time more than anything else.

Steven Weinstock: 16:21

You ever travel for business?

Jonathan Zamir: 16:24

I do travel for business. I travel for pleasure more than I travel for business. I love traveling. That's always been a passion of mine.

Steven Weinstock: 16:31

Anywhere exciting. Recently,

Jonathan Zamir: 16:34

I'm actually going to Italy in a few, in a couple of weeks, which I'm super excited about. My best friend's getting married, so we're gonna go up in the north by Lake Garda. Should be really beautiful.

Steven Weinstock: 16:44

Very nice, very George George Clooney esque. Okay. Very nice. Far from where do you see Keystone in five years? Do you see yourself focusing more on the credit? Maybe on the equity side and being a landlord.

Jonathan Zamir: 16:58

So we, we still are active on the equity side. I see. I'd like to continue to build a credit platform, maybe raise a fund eventually on that side. In addition to the credit side we want to continue doing one-off equity deals. I think the credit side is a way to, to build scale and team. I think equity is the way to build wealth. One of the biggest challenges in the industry I find as an entrepreneur is you have these very large funds that have the capability to hire a lot of great talent. And when you're an entrepreneur. If you don't have a fund from a cashflow perspective, it makes it a lot more challenging.'cause funds are earning their, their management fees that pay for team, but. As an entrepreneur on in real estate, you generally don't have that unless you have a good amount of a assets under management. So if you build a credit platform that builds a you are earning some fees there that helps you build team and you're only as good as your team. Like I really one of the things I've been focused on is building a team that's much smarter than me, which is not saying much, but at the same time it's incredibly humbling because by virtue of doing that, it ends up, really empowering myself, but also it's one plus one equals five. It's really exciting to hire individuals that are really capable.

Steven Weinstock: 18:14

What led you to start or create the professionals of real estate forum? A networking group. Tell us about that. Yeah

Jonathan Zamir: 18:20

so I started pref in 2006. At the time I took 17 of the most active up and coming real estate guys. The younger generation, so to speak. And I looked at 'em and I said, look, our network is everything in this business. I want us to be there for each other. I want us to support each other almost a frat, so to speak. But rule number one was like the fight club at the time. It was like no one talks about being a member of pref. And it grew into this. I didn't even know what it was gonna grow into, but it, I'm very humbled. They grew into this, amazing organization with 80 members and wait lists a lot of people applying to join. And we had some of the, we had sponsors, large sponsors that would help support the organization and, it grew into this amazing platform where I've been really fortunate to make amazing relationships that come in handy every day now of my business Individuals that at the time were, very smart up and coming, are now running some of the biggest institutions in the country. They've shifted up the corporate ladder and they now sit in really high seats. So I will say, I think there's a lot to be said about having a strong network. I also think it's one of the biggest pitfalls with work from home is people don't get the opportunity to build real relationships and to meet their fellow peers in the industry. And I cannot stress, strongly enough how important I really think that is. But pref has been an amazing vehicle and something that, seeing your friends, being able to work together, do deals together, and to trust each other and make introductions. It's a really powerful tool.

Steven Weinstock: 19:53

I was just gonna ask you whether you prefer networking online or in person, but I think you answered that for me. Nothing like it.

Jonathan Zamir: 20:00

I, we do work from home, our team at times but we do meet up in the office and I'll tell you, we are incredibly more efficient or together in person. But there's something to be said about having alone time and just getting stuff done as well. I think during COVID was the first time, and my parents come from a generation where if you weren't suffering, you weren't working hard enough. And I'll never forget it. I, during COVID I was in Miami. Miami. I ran away to Miami during COVID. I was fortunate to do that. I closed the deal on the beach. I was literally on the beach and I signed docs on my iPad and I just looked over at my wife and I'm like, this is nuts. She's what? I'm like, I just closed the deal on the beach. And she looked at me and she's what do you mean? I'm like, you could do it these days. And it was just like a very eye-opening experience. But anyway, it's just

Steven Weinstock: 20:47

interesting. Yeah. Do DocuSign really made me Yeah. A lot easier.

Jonathan Zamir: 20:54

I don't know if you remember the notaries that were online. They're like, we'll, notarize the documents for you online. I'm like, okay, fine. No problem.

Steven Weinstock: 21:01

Yeah. Yeah. If you weren't living in New York, where would you live? It would either be Israel or

Jonathan Zamir: 21:07

Miami. Yeah. I agree. I agree. Honestly, I love, there's no place in the world like Israel. Miami's great. My brother and sister live there. I have a lot of cousins that live there, but Israel's Israel.

Steven Weinstock: 21:19

Yeah. Yeah, I got to visit a few times last year, hopefully this coming year as well. But Miami too. I got to visit. I got to visit a few times last year and, if stay stateside, Miami is great. Moving to Israel is nice too, but definitely a tough move while raising kids. I think that's the catch. That's the rub. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in the same boat. I hear you. Jonathan, I had a great time talking to you. Thank you very much for coming on. My pleasure. Tell our audience how they could reach you. If you want to give you email, you wanna give you phone number. I'll put it in the show notes. Whatever you put out here you want to give them the last four digits of your social security, go ahead. What, whatever that is. Anything,

Jonathan Zamir: 21:57

anything else I should add or, I think the best way, yeah, the best way to reach me is on LinkedIn. I would say just go to Jonathan Zamir and you'll find me there. You're welcome to message me there. We also have our website keystoneequitiesllc.com, where anyone can reach out to us on that front. And we'd love to connect with anybody and everybody we're, we're very active right now. We continue to to stay active and we're growing em. Grateful for everything.

Steven Weinstock: 22:25

Okay. Thank you everyone for listening. I will put everything he mentioned in the show notes. Click subscribe forward, share, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Wealth Clock. Thank you. Thanks so much for your time.