Whitney Sewell is the founder and operator of Life Bridge Capital LLC who began his real estate investing career back in 2009. His company works with accredited investors, helping them improve their investment returns via the exceptional opportunities that multifamily syndication offers. Whitney has always had a passion for both real estate and helping others, and Life Bridge Capital affords him the opportunity to do both.
Whitney is also the host of the Top-rated podcast “The Real Estate Syndication Show” where he interviews the most successful entrepreneurs in the real estate syndication business.
Connect with Whitney
whitney@lifebridgecapital.com
www.lifebridgecapital.com
For today’s show notes, including audio and links to all the resources mentioned, visit www.aptcapitalgroup.com/podcasts.
To get access to our free Passive Investors Guide and monthly newsletters sign up at www.aptcapitalgroup.com.
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal email info@aptcapitalgroup.com.
Local to Southern California? Attend our monthly meetup focused on Multifamily Apartment investing. View our schedule at www.aptcapitalgroup.com/events.
Join our Facebook Group - Passive Income through Multifamily Real Estate
Have a question you would like answered on the show? Email us at info@aptcapitalgroup.com.
Whitney Sewell is the founder and operator of Life Bridge Capital LLC who began his real estate investing career back in 2009. His company works with accredited investors, helping them improve their investment returns via the exceptional opportunities that multifamily syndication offers. Whitney has always had a passion for both real estate and helping others, and Life Bridge Capital affords him the opportunity to do both.
Whitney is also the host of the Top-rated podcast “The Real Estate Syndication Show” where he interviews the most successful entrepreneurs in the real estate syndication business.
Connect with Whitney
whitney@lifebridgecapital.com
www.lifebridgecapital.com
For today’s show notes, including audio and links to all the resources mentioned, visit www.aptcapitalgroup.com/podcasts.
To get access to our free Passive Investors Guide and monthly newsletters sign up at www.aptcapitalgroup.com.
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal email info@aptcapitalgroup.com.
Local to Southern California? Attend our monthly meetup focused on Multifamily Apartment investing. View our schedule at www.aptcapitalgroup.com/events.
Join our Facebook Group - Passive Income through Multifamily Real Estate
Have a question you would like answered on the show? Email us at info@aptcapitalgroup.com.
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welcome to the passive income through multi family real estate podcast brought to you by limitless estates where Kyle and Lolita talk to top experts and seasoned passive investors in the business tell provide clarity and key insights to keep you safe on your journey to financial freedom. Our goal is to help you get educated on how to create passive income for you and your family by using real estate as your vehicle. Now, here are your hosts, Kyle and Lolita.
spk_1: 0:40
Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Passive Income through multi family real estate podcast. I'm your co host Lolita, also joined by Kyle on the show Today we have Whitney soul joining us. Whitney. Great to have you here. How's it going?
spk_2: 0:54
It's going great, and I'm I'm honored to be on your show.
spk_1: 0:57
Thanks for being here before he gets started. Here's a little bit about Whitney. He is the founder and operator of Life Bridge Capital L. C, who began his real estate in busting career back in 2009. His company works with the credit buster's, helping them improve their investment returns. Whitney has always had a passion for both real estate and helping others, and LifeBridge Capital affords him the opportunity to do both. Winning is also the host of the top rated podcast, the real estate syndication show, where he and where he interviews the most successful entrepreneurs in the real estate syndication business. So we're real excited to learn about the ins and outs of your business and how that has impacted your life. So before we start Whitney, could you please tell the listeners a little bit more about yourself and what you currently d'oh!
spk_2: 1:41
Sure, so currently? Well, a little more about myself. That's a That's a big question. But yes. Oh, you know, I guess a little bit about my background is ah in military and and, uh, spend a year overseas, come back and thought that the only thing I was called out to do was be a police officer. And so I I did that become a byword start work from for Kentucky State Police and then and ah, figure found out real fast that there was no money to be made and and, uh, I I really enjoyed it. I would have almost done it for free when I got hired. But pretty soon you get married than you know. Things change, right? But found that real saying that people are retiring making less than 40,000 year. And so, you know, I had to find something else. And then in came real estate. And I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about that through some questions. Maybe about you know, what I did then. But it got into multi family right away, but small, multi family. And then, uh, you know, not too long ago or the last couple of years. I learned about a syndication, and and what that was and how that is. Ah, lot different business than what I was doing at the time and why I wanted to present. And so that's what I'm doing now. Great. So can you go ahead and talk about how you did get started into real estate? And then also kind of where you're at now, in your in your life? Sure. So? So at that time I purchased ah, couple try. Plex is and we don't learn a lot the hard way. We, uh you know, a lot of hard lessons that were self taught there somehow we We got into that property and I had a little looking back. I don't even know how we got a loan, you know, for for those properties at that time. But somehow we made it happen, and and I ended up taking another position. Ah, our ah leaving the state place and taking ah federal position. So we had to move. And so shortly after sold those properties and Bolton sold a few other properties and up to, like, 15 unit, which I still have. But, you know, doing that like the 15 unit and then ah, looking for more properties, you know, duplexes. Triplex is things like that are single family homes. I just decided that it was just really hard to scale, you know, like you've heard. And and But I started learning about this thing called syndication. I don't remember where I heard of that first. You know, I didn't have a clue what that waas And I find that to be very common. Nobody. You know, even people that's been in investing in real estate for 30 years have never heard this term. And so and I don't think it was used 20 years together. like it is now, Um, o R is often, um so anyway, so started educating myself started. Ah, you know, learning what? That man. I really liked the business model of syndication. I really liked being able to build teams and and to be able to do larger deals. And a lot more people benefit from the deal. And, ah, just the scalability of it. And so that's That's where I'm at now, obviously with podcasts and raising capital and and trying to do our own deals. Now, this indication, one
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of things
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you often hear from other sponsors about today's market is it's, you know, there are no deals out there. They're too expensive. It's too competitive.
spk_1: 4:40
How are you
spk_2: 4:41
able to find the deals that you're taking down? So it's, I think it's a lot about patients at the moment, you know. And as far as it, um, you know, being too expensive, that's correct. You know, everything is overpriced, as we all know, and it is competitive. It's extremely competitive. And so you know, patients and looking at lots of deals. So, you know, I hear it more and more, you know, more and more often now, that people are analyzing, you know, not just 50 but maybe 100. Or, you know, 200 deals before they find something that's even worth pursuing, you know? Or maybe they expect to may be closed to deals this year or three where maybe they would have closed six or eight before, you know. And so it's just being patient and are there still deals out there? Of course, I talked to a guy earlier today. That's I mean, he has hundreds and hundreds of units under contract all over the country. I mean, at the moment, every all at one time and and ah, you know there's people finding deals, but they're they're having to be pretty creative, and they're having to be very patient. What are you doing To be creative, to find some of those deals. So you know, either either some direct mail or really working on relationships with brokers, which, you know, I've heard all kinds of mixed opinions about whether it's broken relations or whether we should be going director cellar. And I've seen people have success with both. Um, you know, I don't think right now is a time where you're gonna go start a brand new relationship with a broker and just obviously immediately get deals in this market. You will have should have already had that relationship built, but, ah, but hopefully you're creating relationships with other sellers, you know, also in the market that you're looking at. Yeah. I mean, any way that you can kind of get a deal is important, right? So I think it's important to do it from multiple avenues. So of course, you've chosen to mainly be a capital razor for other operators. If I'm not mistaken, why'd you choose this? Rob versus being a direct sponsor. So ultimately, Ah, being a someone that can raise capitals, it's a very important part of this business, right? I mean, without the capital, you have no deal. You know, you can't close, right? And so you're you become very quickly. You become a very important part of that deal. And of that team, right, if you can raise capital. And so that that initially was just a way for me to get into the business and for me to build a track record and and for me to learn more about the business and actually do some deals with with a team, that's a lot more experience. And so that was my plan or not my long term plan, but just initially to get started. And so you know, we've done a few deals now we've caused, but with other teams, you know, as far as bringing capital to those deals. And and so it does lots of things for the business, though it it not only allows my investors to see some really good opportunities to invest in, but they see me being a part of them. They see, you know, we get to build our relationship and and they get to see me communicating with them. And that's just growing in that relationship in them, you know, gaining trust in me and just my experience. And then, ah, you know, also just being a part of someone else's deal. I mean, you're just exposed to so many more things than you would otherwise, you know. And so, uh, you know, meeting, meeting their team members, learning about how they operate. I mean, they're just so many ways that air so valuable and growing your business long term.
spk_1: 7:55
How did you
spk_2: 7:56
initially vet those sponsors and create that relationship with them. So initially, you know, it was a mentor, you know, And then insert somebody that I had known for quite a few months and built a relationship with and and just already had this track record that I respected, you know, long before one before we even met. But then you know more. I met and learned about them, and really I mean, that was me personally with with this specific sponsor. Um, but, you know, any time that you're vetting a sponsor, somebody you're gonna partner with, its gonna be their track record, you know, And how you don't ask about a deal that didn't go as well as planned and how it was handled. Or maybe for some references. And if other investors that you could speak with or other maybe other capital razors. If you're planning to be a capital razor, that's partnering because any any deal can look really good on paper. But it may be a fantastic opportunity. However, if they're no, you're good sponsor. If they're not a good operator, it doesn't matter how good the deal is. Damn.
spk_1: 8:56
So it looks like
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you on Lee. Take on accredited investors after I did some research on your website. Is there a reason you do this versus taking on both accredited and sophisticated? So I will I will begin to take some sophisticated investors, but initially it depends on if you're If you're raising capital on you're partnering with someone else, that depends on what they're taking or if they will. If they will not take any non accredited or sophisticated than you know, you can either, Um, if you're partnering with them, raising capital and become a part of their team. But, you know, and I've heard better side that stories well, Onda lot of people will not take non accredited just because of the sophistication level and just the, um, it's just a different type of investor, you know, if you're taking their last $25,000 you know, I mean, it's, um it's a lot more responsibility. I feel that it then somebody that's been investing for a long time. They have a larger wealth, possibly, you know. And if it's a very small percentage of their wealth, um, it's a lot different, you know, and it's just a lot different relationship over the long term that property somebody that's giving you their last you know, 20 $25,000 are much more likely to need it before you exit that property, and it just it causes a lot more problems, right? And that's not something I want to wish on that person. Or, you know I want. I want to help them through that and understand. Help them to understand why this is not the best vehicle for you to invest in at the moment. But hopefully, you know will be there. But just right now, it's not know what's best, okay? And so you've mentioned the word team, obviously, a couple of times today. What
spk_1: 10:29
other
spk_2: 10:29
pieces of the pie or pieces of the team are involved in a multifamily syndication and where you can kind of get involved, not mainly being the deal sponsor, but get involved in other ways. So to get started? Is that your question? So I tell lots of people capital raising is is a fantastic place to get started. But you gotta work on building that relationship with with some type of mentor or a deal sponsor somebody, right? Somebody that's gonna let you, Cummings, they're doing you a big favor, even if even if you don't get paid, but but they'll let you bring part of some money to the deal. It's so worth your time just for that experience. And I mean, they're they're mentoring you, whether they want to or not. If they let you come in the deal, you know you're gonna have lots of questions, right? And really, you're not providing a ton of value and you can't win and you're getting started. Um, right away, however, you know, a lot of times people have networks that they've They've either had other jobs that they've come from mother careers where they've had success. Or maybe they just built relationships with lots of people in a different industry. And now you know, when they start exposing, you know that they're in real estate and maybe some success that they've had personally, you know, now other people want in. And so if they can, if they can raise some capital and be part of somebody else's deals and really, you know, hitched their horse to somebody else's wagon, right? You know, that's that's a lot more successful or just further down the road you know, in this, in this journey of real estate investing, you know, just really helps to get there, but capital raising, But even people that are really good underwriting s O. I know people who have business is that of just underwriting deals for people. And so that's Ah, there's there's plenty of guys that are underwriting lots of properties and they can't do it all they can't under at all the deal. So if you if you have a really good skillet underwriting, you're really good with numbers. You know, I would offer that skill. I would find somebody that you could just underwrite deals, too, and I wouldn't ask for any favors. You know, I would just ask him if you could just start underwriting deals for them just to help out and start to build that relationship. But s o either capital raising you could start underwriting. And maybe you have a skill where you're really good at due diligence or you maybe have a construction background and you just offer to walk the property for some with somebody you know. So So maybe you know, from your experience, you understand foundations or you understand roofs you know where you understand? You know how the hell the costs, you know, come about, you know, are theirs. You have to get creative, right? And so, you know, think about ways you can provide value from your experience s so you can get into the business as a capital razor. Since you're not the lead sponsor,
spk_1: 13:06
how much
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access do you have to all the information you need to make sure that it's the right deal for your investors. Good question. And if if you don't have access to the documents or or um or the information that you need to make sure that it's a good deal, then I would back away. I would I would leave that opportunity. But I mean, I mean, personally, I'm gonna have a CZ much as much access as I as I need. I mean to the information about this property, and I'm personally gonna do tours of the property. Or when the tour's done, I'm gonna be there, You know, the tour of the property and envied the underwriting view. The what? The diligence is being done. And, uh, you know, because I want to make sure that I would be comfortable investing in it. Before I'm going toe presented to the ambassador. I got it. Okay. And so you host a podcast that gets put out daily. And so I'm actually asking this selfishly, because we air going through our launch of 31 days straight and you do it daily. So
spk_1: 14:04
how do you have you
spk_2: 14:05
handle that workload? Because I understand what it's like to do that. And then why do you do it daily? So I get asked this so often. But you know, as far as the Daily Show, you know that the key to doing a daily show is having a team just like doing a large apartment deal and said, You know, I had to build a team before ever launched a daily podcast, and so I had to make sure my team was ready to go. Everybody had specific tasks. I use virtual assistance for everything. I've had many virtual assistants. Ah ah, Matter of fact, I've had four since beginning since the beginning of the show and each one of them do you have a different task, or maybe numerous tasks that they do almost every day for the show and So you know, I had to build that team. And then, you know, I had a back up almost two months worth of episodes before we launched. And I want to do that because, you know, you know, once you launch there's gonna be problems, right? You know, things were gonna happen that you just cannot expect. And thankfully, it has gone very smoothly as faras launch and and believe it or not doing it your daily. But But, you know, that gave us some some time before we launch to make sure everybody knew what they were doing. And I had to create some systems. And so you know that away once we launch, if something happened, we also had, you know, that almost two month time period of just shows that are just waiting. Um, So we had some time to mess up or we had some timeto correct and redirect ourself for our team and make sure that that we could improve and and ah, but that was that was key having a team having systems in place. So in making sure everybody knew, knew exactly what they need to do. Just like any other business model you know, right or whether it's due diligence on the property. You have people that in place know exactly what they need to do to knows exactly what their jobs are. And so no different with, you know, undertaking A you know, the podcast, cause it's definitely a ton of work. And I will say this before I launch, just like you and I talked, I think, before you launched yours. Um, you know, so many people come and ask, right? You are actually in about podcasting. But But I went to so many people as well and said, you know, tell me about podcasting. Tell me about ah, you know, you know, is is it worth it? Is it is it, you know, Is it just as much work is what everybody says and and everybody said, I mean, everybody that I talked to would just express how much work it is. Oh, my goodness. It's so much work. It's so much work, you know? And the problem was that they were all doing daily or weekly shows. And so, you know, there s So that made me question, You know, I could wait a minute. Maybe I should rethink this. And so maybe I you know, I shouldn't do that. And, uh, inside, then I thought, No and I'm gonna do it. I'm going to do a daily show. And then and then I was at a conference and and there's two people at this conference that everybody listening to this would know that I won't say their names. But, you know, big names in the industry and because of them were like
spk_1: 16:57
Whitney. You
spk_2: 16:58
don't do it Daily Show. It's crazy. Don't do that. CNN Don't do that. And so So to answer your question a little bit, too, about why we do it. And there's plenty of other reasons. But so I talked to a mentor about this, and I said, You know that. You know, everybody says it's so much work and I believe that and and, uh and then these two other people said, You know, maybe you should read, You know, you don't do that. You should. You need to rethink this. And so I was expressing that. And my mentor said, Well, that means you got to do it because because it's too much work, you know, And so that just means that. You know, less people are going to do it, you know? And so So anyway, all that to say I just had to make a way and had to build a team to help me do it. Um, and so, you know, Is it crazy? Yes, it's crazy. Ah, and is it a ton of work? Of course. But, you know, just had to find a way to make a way to make it happen. Yeah. Awesome. Congrats on that. And, you know, we took the approach of a ready fire aim versus setting everything up in advance. But it's been a good learning process for us. And I'm gonna reach out to you and and get some more advice on that. Happy to help. So, uh, also, while I was doing research for bio mentions that ah, very important cause that is deeply personal. So can you speak a little bit more to that? Of course. Of course. So my wife and I are in our third adoption process now, adopting our third child. I say adoption process my life be like people don't know what that means. So I try to explain adopting our third child and so that process and most people have no idea that to adopt a child, it can cost anywhere from 40 to $60,000. And so, you know, if you've never been exposed to it option than then, you know that people have no way of knowing right. But that burden, that expense, you know, leaves a lot of families that ah ah, I mean that they won't do it right. They won't commit to adoption because of this expanse. Or, you know, I've heard it so many times. I'll say, Whitney, that's more than I make in a year, you know? And so that's where you know, LifeBridge Capital wants to come in, and we've committed 50% of our profits to helping those families that are in this adoption process. And so you know, to help help with that burden. And so if they'll commit to adopting a child, then we want to help with help them through the process. But also, um, you know, financially and so that it can take anywhere from, I mean a few months toe, two years or longer, sometimes, you know, to bring a child home. And so it is just a roller coaster, and it's just hard on the entire family. Um, and unfortunately, most of the adoption industry, not all of it, but a lot of it has very little compassion for the adoptive family, and and so, you know, it's a it's a roller coaster. But I will say I tell everybody it's not easy, but it's well worth it. And, you know, we've experienced the reward and and we've got, you know, two young sons, you know, in our home now, you know, through adoption. And we're extremely blessed because of it. Um, a few years ago, it was 2011. I'll never forget my wife and I were coming home. We've been at this church's pastor, was talking about hate data here he and his wife had adopted, and, uh, we had never even considered it. But he talked about, you know, just their family and how they had adopted and and, uh, and caring for orphans and widows. And he was talking about that and on her way home often. Ah, the question that we had for each other was Well, why wouldn't we? Or why would we not? Why would we not adopt? Not why should we? But why would we not adopt? And so within a week we turned in her application to adopt from Ethiopia, and we've never even considered it before. We never discussed it. And and so and then two years to the month our first son came home and so from Ethiopia. And so we were. Ah. Anyway, our family's been so blessed by adoption and a bit that burden just of the expense just hinders, you know, the 150 million orphans in the world from being adopted, unfortunately, and amongst many other things. But But that's one thing that ah, that we wanna be able to help with. Amazing. Thanks for sharing that Lolita is going to take this indoor Final Four questions. Are you ready? I'm ready.
spk_1: 20:52
All right, Whitney, here we go. What is the one tool that you use in real estate investing that you could not do without?
spk_2: 21:00
C R E M. No doubt just tracking conversations and helping, you know, know when you've communicated with people in this business, the relationship business, it's It's key.
spk_1: 21:12
Absolutely. Can you tell us a story about your biggest mistake in real estate investing? So far. And what is the main takeaway for our listeners?
spk_2: 21:20
So the biggest mistake I always go back to is the first property. I really jumped in too fast. I think I wasn't educated. Me, We learned a lot and Ah, and but I just had I didn't educate myself enough about, like that about the market, specifically and about the property. Just doing due diligence. I trusted, you know. Ah, Home Inspector too much, you know, you know, didn't really understand time. Well, I should probably find somebody that specializes in heat. They see, or maybe the roofs Or, you know, things like that. And and so anyway, ah, you know, we got through that. But honestly, my biggest takeaway, because all those things I didn't know how to do, you know, we were newly married, and it and it Ah, you know, it just hindered us. You know, it consumed me. And so, um, you know, I would say I was I just jumped in too premature and ah, in it. You know, like I said, it just took time away from my new bride. You know, it's time, you know, and so that mentally, but it was all those things. You know, just being uneducated about due diligence. Mostly.
spk_1: 22:22
Okay. What is it that you need to do now to grow your life to the next level?
spk_2: 22:27
What? I need to dio e need more systems and need more team members, right? And he'd be able to raise more capital. And And, uh but and that's that's what we're working on. That's what we're working on every day, eh? So what I need to do, I just need to I think I think I'm doing it. I just need I just got to keep it going.
spk_1: 22:45
Perfect. And lastly, where can people find out more about you?
spk_2: 22:49
You got a life bridge capitol dot com, and you can see our website. You can learn more about us. There's a contact us page or you can subscribe. And then ah, you email me at Whitney at LifeBridge Capital. If you don't learn more, if you have questions about whatever, I'm happy to get on the car and help any
spk_1: 23:07
perfect Congratulations on all the success so far. And thanks for all you do in the real estate world. And more importantly, the life's you change and touch through what you and your wife do through LifeBridge capital. So we really appreciate you being on our show.
spk_2: 23:20
Thank you all very much. My pleasure. Thanks, Winnie.
spk_0: 23:24
Thanks for listening. To learn more about the passive income through multi family real estate podcast and to get access to today's show notes and the previous shows visit limitless dash estates dot com. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe to the podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in again next week for another episode.