Why Long-Term Operators Stop Chasing Quick Wins | Sujay Mehta | Part 1

This episode isn’t about passive income. It’s about the constraint most investors underestimate: time.

In Part 1 of this conversation, Sujay - hotel investor and long-term operator - explains why he never built his strategy around quick exits, and how reinvestment, patience, and operational control shaped his approach.

This wasn’t a mindset choice. It was a structural one.

We cover:
 • Why selling early often breaks compounding
 • How reinvestment changes the risk profile
 • When exits actually make sense
 • The difference between ownership and control
 • Why long-term operators underwrite time, not hype

If you’re a founder, operator, or investor working inside long timelines and capital cycles, this conversation will feel familiar.

This isn’t a highlight reel.
 It’s a practical breakdown of how durable businesses are built - slowly, deliberately, and under real constraints.

Chief Milestones is a video podcast featuring honest conversations with founders, parents, and investors about building real businesses, staying healthy, and raising families.

New episodes release Tuesdays and Fridays.

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Transcript

Context & Background

Sujay Mehta 0:00

Didn't want to, you know, be in school for the next 10, 12 years. And I really wanted to start making an impact in the world. You know, it was in commercial area, so it wouldn't make sense to do like townhomes or condos or anything like that. Um, even multifamily just like wouldn't have made sense with the proximity to the highway to squeeze it into that footprint. We were like two inches away from not being able to do it. So, what I would recommend is if you wanted to get into the branded space, um, and maybe start with something. What assets do you prioritize now?

Reshma Vadlamudi 0:32

Do you own any residential at all?

Sujay Mehta 0:34

So we bought a house last year um in 2024 when we moved to Columbus, and um, in in six months, I got a blank check offer.

Reshma Vadlamudi 0:43

How do you determine what happens once you find that piece of land?

Sujay Mehta 0:47

What we typically do is we say, like, hey.

Reshma Vadlamudi 0:57

What were you doing before real estate? And how did you start? How did your real estate journey start?

The Decision That Forced A Rethink

Where The Real Constraint Appeared

Sujay Mehta 1:04

Yeah, um, so before real estate, I I was actually pre-med. So I graduated in neuroscience from Ohio State. Um, and then I I actually took a two-year break and I went to India, studied for a couple years and completely off the grid, off the map. And uh that was more for myself kind of. Uh it was like a principal-oriented uh type of education. Um, and then when I came back, you know, obviously, you know, plan was to do med school. Um, but in between, you know, just studying philosophy, I had a change of mind, change of heart. Um, didn't want to, you know, be in school for the next 10, 12 years. And I really wanted to start making an impact in the world. And so I went into entrepreneurship in the healthcare sector and uh we opened up some addiction rehab facilities. Um, but you know, that just it became unsustainable with regulations changing, insurance, audits, like all that stuff. And so it just became a business that I didn't feel like would be we would be able to scale um to to the level that I wanted to. And so while doing that, I started dabbling into commercial real estate on the side, specifically development. And so my my father, he actually had a lot of experience um in the development space, um, and then also in real estate. And so just, you know, I was exposed to all of that early on and uh started doing some projects on the side, and then my first acquisition was a land acquisition, where then I decided to build a hotel. Like that the land itself was perfectly suited for a hotel. And then I just never looked back, you know. I didn't necessarily want to get into the hotel space, um, but it just kind of found me and uh haven't looked back since.

Reshma Vadlamudi 2:46

So yeah, okay. So what were what was your father doing? And was he in real estate or was he in okay? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Sujay Mehta 2:53

So great question. So my my father, obviously, you know, probably similar story to you. My dad hustled, like he started with nothing, started with the convenience store, then import export business. He would, you know, uh he built that company up and then he sold that. And then, you know, while doing the import-export, selling paper products, he was actually supplying to some hotel owners. And so he actually got into the hotel industry um not too long ago. Um, and then, you know, he started scaling up the hotel business. He kind of laid the foundation, and then I was able to kind of like leverage him, leverage what he had learned and take it to the next level.

Reshma Vadlamudi 3:34

And you mentioned you started with the land acquisition. Where was that?

Why The Obvious Solution Didn’t Work

Sujay Mehta 3:39

Yeah, that was in uh Hilliard. Um, so if you're familiar with Columbus, it's uh it's kind of like the west side. Um, but this is a little bit northwest sector of um of Hilliard. And so it's a good area, had uh this piece of land had great frontage off the main road, great access off the highway. Um, and it just it just made sense uh you know for a hotel development there. Could have done some other stuff, um, but the size of the the size of the land was 1.5 acres, um just shy of that. And so there were there were very few brands and very few um, you know, businesses that I could really do. It wasn't big enough for like a big mixed-use development project. Um, couldn't, you know, it was in commercial area, so it wouldn't make sense to do like townhomes or condos or anything like that. Um, even multifamily, it just like wouldn't have made sense with the proximity to the highway. And so a hotel really made sense over there. And uh we were able to squeeze it in, like literally when we decided to build that hotel because it was less than 1.5 acres, had to get all the parking in. We wanted a minimum of 84 rooms and um to to squeeze it into that footprint, we were like two inches away from not being able to do it. Yeah, yeah. I do not recommend that for most people. Yeah, don't do a development as your first deal.

Reshma Vadlamudi 5:00

Yeah, yeah. So what do you recommend as the first deal?

The Workaround That Changed Everything

Sujay Mehta 5:04

Yeah, I mean, there's so many opportunities now. And again, this was 10 years ago, right? So um a lot, a lot has shifted since. Um nowadays, you know, even the the avatar that's staying at hotels and the new generation, they are open to a smaller boutique type property. Um, and um, and when we were kind of when I was getting into it, people looked for the biggest or the best and the tallest buildings is like what they wanted to stay in. And so I really see that avatar shifting. So, what I would recommend is if you wanted to get into the branded space, um, and maybe start with something, you know, smaller. Um, and again, it depends on where you are financially, right? Um, but a limited service property would be great. Um, obviously, the bigger you go, the more you can kind of leverage economies of scale. Um, but then also don't be afraid to sleep on like some of the boutique properties that are available now, right? Um, that are tired and can use some renovation, some value add, and you can, you know, buy this undervalued, but the location is everything.

Financing, Structure, And Risk

Reshma Vadlamudi 6:09

Yeah. What assets do you prioritize now? Do you own any residential at home?

Sujay Mehta 6:14

Yeah. So I I do have a uh couple single family homes uh or condos um that I that I've rented out for a long time.

Reshma Vadlamudi 6:24

Um I am like short-term rentals or no, no, they're long-term rentals.

Sujay Mehta 6:29

Um, and I'm, you know, if I get an offer, I'll sell them. I have no problem. They're rented out, they're fine. Um, but also uh we are building up our uh multifamily portfolio as well. So we did an acquisition in 20, oh last year, yeah, 2024. Uh we did an acquisition in 2024. Um, and you know, we're we've renovated it. Uh we put about 20,000 in per you know per unit into the into the property, increased rents about $700 per per unit. Um, and now we're we're getting ready to exit. Uh probably in the next month or so, uh, we'll put it on the market and kind of exit out of that. Um, and we've kind of done our business plan and and gotten the rents up, stabilized it. I mean, if we don't sell it, we'll keep it and hold it. Uh, it's not a problem. So I've actually, you know, I've partnered up with a couple other people and we've uh we've built a uh multifamily wing. Um, but for me, like my you know, priority and what is always going to be my uh like number one asset class is just I think hot hospitality, um, just because we're so deep into it, right? Um, but I am dabbling into other asset classes um as opportunities come. Like I'll be the first one to say that you know that you can't only make money in like the hotel industry, right? Like you can make money in real estate in so many different ways. Um, an example, I haven't even shared this with most people yet, but I just I bought a house last year for for myself, right? My family. So we bought a house last year um in 2024 when we moved to Columbus. And um, in in six months, I got a blank check offer for the house. And uh another house, eight doors down, came on the market. And so we flipped it and we flipped it for 250 grand, right? And so, like you can only make money by owning the real estate. You can't make money by just doing analysis and staying in that analysis paralysis. And so, um, you know, like even for me now, a big learning lesson from that is like it doesn't matter what the property is, if it pencils, if it makes sense, yes, buy the property because you can you can only do the thing by owning the real estate, right? Or else it's it's not like everyone says, Oh, real estate is a great avenue um for generational wealth, this, that, whatever. But none of that makes sense unless you can actually buy the property, right? And so um, you know, I'm open. My one of my partners, um Brittany Arneson, she was big in uh self-storage space, right? And she continues to do that. We've partnered on the hotel side too. So she's now getting into the hotel stuff even deeper. Um, but yeah, there's lots of opportunities out there.

Reshma Vadlamudi 9:09

Yeah. So you're are you learning about the storage uh from her and then wanting to invest in the storage?

Sujay Mehta 9:15

Yeah, no, I'm not learning the storage from her. Uh no, no, I'm not learning. I at this point, I feel pretty confident in like just being able to, you know, I feel like once you've done enough hospitality deals or multifamily deals or whatever it is, it's it's pretty similar, especially if you've done hotel deals, right? Because you know the business component of it, plus you know the real estate. And so I feel like now that I've done hotels, I could do anything, right? And so even uh, you know, I've we've looked into like urgent cares and those kinds of things as well, which those are more business heavy, yeah, right? There could be a real estate component, but there doesn't have to be, it's a business. But I feel like we can do any of that, right? Because I I understand the business plus the real estate side.

Reshma Vadlamudi 9:59

You just need to know how to underwrite it and then how it performs and the systems.

The Cost No One Plans For

Sujay Mehta 10:03

Yeah, yeah, it's small nuances, right? Um, but um, but now, you know, I I'm pretty confident in any any asset class or any business. So we've also started a bookkeeping company. Um, so I have a I have a bookkeeping company, and you know, while we were building up our portfolio, one of the biggest pain points I had was the accounting and the bookkeeping. One, most, you know, accountants or CPAs were too expensive, right? So it didn't make sense paying five, six hundred dollars a month for a hotel um where, you know, the accounting is pretty streamlined, right? That there is, it's very important. It's there's a lot of reconciliation to do, but it's streamlined, right? And so it didn't make sense to do that, right? Um, and at the same time, like I felt like a lot of the companies that were doing the bookkeeping, they were just mindlessly coding and putting it on paper, not really thinking about it, not protecting you, not double checking things. And so I built my own company that, you know, one, we can do it for a very cost-effective price. And then two, um, you know, my team really focuses in on the numbers. So, like if you, you know, if you're paying your sales tax, for example, your bed tax, lodging tax, whatever you call it, but you're paying that. And if it's you're supposed to pay, you know, 17% and it's coming out to 18%, we'll catch it, right? It's like, hey, we may have overpaid $90 on your lodging tax this month, right? Um, an example, a couple months ago, uh, the local township, they drew my tax twice. And, you know, I didn't realize, but the accounting team caught it. It's like, hey, this got double posted in the account. Yeah. Um, where most people would just, oh, lodging, okay. And then they'd see lodging again and they put in the lodging tax, right? And so it would, it would just count as double. They wouldn't think about it. They'd not really um, you know, it's just mindless, right? They're not really consciously seeing that, oh, hey, this is you know, 3% higher than it should have been.

Reshma Vadlamudi 12:02

So is the bookkeeping just for the hotels or is it for all real estate personnel?

Sujay Mehta 12:07

Yeah, uh actually all businesses, all real estate, anything. It could even be for personal. And so we use QuickBooks is like the main software. Obviously, we have the ability to use other software as needed. Um, and we we've used other software um if you know the client prefers or their business prefers. But we have schools, we have um recruiters, uh, we have Airbnbs, uh, lots of Airbnbs. Uh we have even some clients that are doing FEMA um displacement and and that business as well as you know.

Reshma Vadlamudi 12:38

What is it called? What is your bookkeeping?

Sujay Mehta 12:40

CAFA, CAFA financial. Okay, nice.

Reshma Vadlamudi 12:42

So you're vertically integrating into your business.

Sujay Mehta 12:45

Yeah, yeah, that's the goal, right? So um as many things we can do, and then obviously, if there's things that you know someone else is really good at and it just makes sense, I have no problem doing that.

Reshma Vadlamudi 12:57

And also you mentioned about multifamily residential as we were talking. Um, so does that have to do anything with the housing shortage here in Columbus? Do you see that as your main pull towards that asset class?

Sujay Mehta 13:11

Yeah, there's a huge housing shortage in Columbus. Columbus is one of the fastest growing cities um on the on the east side of the country and definitely in the Midwest. Columbus is, I think, primed to just explode in the next five years, especially. And it already is like people who are in Ohio feel it. Um, and so you know that it, I mean, there's a huge demand, right? Um, especially from like the luxury standpoint. So we're actually building some townhomes right now. Um, so we bought some land and we're doing a townhome development.

Reshma Vadlamudi 13:43

So most of it is because of the housing shortage that determines like what your next deal could be. Is that is that safe to say?

Sujay Mehta 13:51

Yeah, but not not just the housing shortage, right? Okay. So yes, um, not just the housing shortage because if there's a pocket or a suburb or an area um that has a lot of opportunity, just because there's not a shortage, but there's still a demand in that specific area, like we'll still look at it, right? So it's hard to say like this is the only metric that I look at. Yes. I just look for opportunities.

What They’d Do Differently Now

Reshma Vadlamudi 14:14

Um, when you see this land, what what would you like how did how do you is it a frame framework that you go through? So is this going to be a hotel or is this going to be a multifamily? Or this one's going to be townhouses, or how do you determine what happens once you find that piece of land?

Sujay Mehta 14:32

What we typically do is we say, like, hey, there's a gap in this market for housing or for, you know, like multifamily uh rentals or for hotels or travelers, right? And so when we decide that there's a gap in this market, that's when then we go out and we start looking for land, right? And so, you know, we'll go out looking for land. An example another example is, you know, we've got a property by the airport, and that was a larger parcel of land. And we did this twice now in the same market. We bought a larger parcel of land. We knew we wanted to build a hotel there, and so we built a hotel there and we still had two acres left over. And so then we built a Burger King and a Tim Hortons, right? And so the the Burger King was a build-to-suit. So we built it and you know, sold it right away. Um, and that was already contracted beforehand. Uh the Tim Hortons we built got the tenant, the operator in there, and then we sold it as like a triple net lease um for like a four cap, right? And so both of those properties, you know, a little bit different, but again, it was a it was a four and a half acre property that we were able to kind of develop and and put together. And that was like massive development, but like a small, you know, kind of uh massive.

Reshma Vadlamudi 15:51

Still, like you were able to identify that there is need for Burger King in that area, and there is no Tim Hortons in that area, exactly.

Sujay Mehta 15:59

And and we we identified that these would be great uh fast food parcels, right? And it would supplement the hotel as well, right? Like the guests would love that, right? And so if another hotel operator asked us for that land, we'd probably say no. We weren't maybe honed in on like this has to be a Tim Hortons, right? We then went out and found the fast food person that wanted that property, and you know, we signed those contracts and and then developed whatever they wanted us to develop.

Reshma Vadlamudi 16:27

So how long does that take from land to development?

Sujay Mehta 16:30

Um, so if everything is dialed in, you're ready to go, uh, you have all your people um kind of ducks in a row, um, then I would say about 18 months. Okay.

Reshma Vadlamudi 16:41

So do you have your crew ready to go like in Columbus? Yeah for all these developments? Yeah.

Sujay Mehta 16:47

So I I do. Um, they're not necessarily my employees, but we've had a great relationship with these people and we've worked with them in the past. And so I they're my go-to's, right? And then if I have an issue with our civil person, right? Which my civil person's great, but if I have an issue with the civil person, I can change them out. If I have an issue with an architect, I can change them out, or if the bids come higher. Um, but I have I have a short list of you know, one or two people that we're just like always going to. Yeah. Um, and my development, like my contractors and all of have been the same uh thus far. Um, my last development deal through COVID, we had to kind of finish the project on our own. Um, and so through that I learned a lot about you know GCing our own projects.

Reshma Vadlamudi 17:33

But nearly 70% of US hotels owned by South Asian families. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think most of them are holding on to these assets with the hope of passing them down the generations? Or are we seeing the shift with the next generation? Because most of them are wanting to become either doctors or engineers. And do you think they are going to exit the hospitality industry? Where do you see this going?

How Alex Reframed The Business

Sujay Mehta 17:58

Yeah, that's a that's a great question. And honestly, I haven't thought about it a ton, but I do, I mean, you brought up a great point. It's like, you know, like a lot of you know, the the first generation came to the United States and it was something that they could get into, they could, you know, kind of house hack it as well. Um, it's a place to stay, you know, they can work it. Um, you know, the family can um kind of contribute and run the property, right? And that was like the old way to do it. Um, what I've seen is like the next generation, though, has kind of stepped into it and they're doing things very professionally and they're able to scale, right? So there may be less South Asian owners, but those less owners may still have as big of a footprint um in the space as um as you know, the the earlier generation did. So even though a few are getting out, like you know, for for me, some of some of the people that I know, they have 40, 50 properties, right? Um, and while their parents may only have had, you know, four or five, you know. I mean, I say only, but this is a lot still, but right, but they're able to kind of scale it and take it to the next level. So even though there's more people stepping out of the business, their portfolios are larger. And so I think the ownership, you know, may still be um, you know, skewed heavily towards South Asians, but I've also seen a shift in in people here um that are now learning about it. People are finally talking about it on social media. And I I think it's gonna be the number one asset class in the next couple of years that people are talking about, right? Like multifamily kind of had its bubble, self-storage had its bubble, um, and now I think uh I think hotels are gonna be hot.

Reshma Vadlamudi 19:39

Yes. And I also see most people talking about the boutique hotels more than the flagged. And I feel like flagged are also getting that negative connotation these days. Yeah. But yeah, we'll also go into that. Yeah, yes. Um I asked I brought that question up because we were touring so many hotels, and most of the most of the first generation parents that we were talking to, their main reason that they kept telling us were most of their kids didn't want to take up because they're doctors or engineers and they don't have time to take up this project. Yeah, that's but but then it's good to know from your side that the actually the next generation is scaling up and actually doing more efficient deals. Yeah, right. So that that's that's good. Yeah, yeah.

Sujay Mehta 20:28

No, absolutely. And you know, I I I think there's truth to both sides. Um, so there will be a lot of people that that do exit out of the hotel industry for that reason as well, right? So I mean again, the these people came here so their kids could get a good education and um and be able to pursue whatever they want, yes, right. And so they're now able to pursue like the medical industry or legal or you know, engineering, whatever it may be.

Reshma Vadlamudi 20:53

I also have seen that shift happening because they were entrepreneurs and the sacrifices that they made early on in their careers, they didn't want, they don't want their kids to go through. But how you source your deals today?

Sujay Mehta 21:07

Yeah.

Reshma Vadlamudi 21:07

Um, and what makes something worth your time now?

Sujay Mehta 21:10

Yeah. Um, so now a lot of deals come to me, right? But that's because I've I've put in the work in the relationships, right? And so um this game is a is a big relationship game. Um, but I always get people asking me, oh, where, you know, like how do you find hotels or how do you find hotels for sale? And I always laugh because that usually means they haven't looked, right? They haven't even tried. Um, but uh if you just go online and you just search hotels for sale in Chicago, in Columbus, in Cincinnati, wherever it is, you will find a list, right? And and that's a good place to start. Yes, right. And I always find people like, oh, I don't know where to look, or I don't know how to find hotels. I'm like, you just take out my phone and put it in Google, and it's like, come on, you know? And so, um, and I think once you start going down that rabbit hole, things just start opening, right? You start calling the the brand. Brokers that have those properties for sale. They now have other properties that are for sale. They now have other properties that are coming, coming onto the market that have not hit the market yet. And it just is a rabbit hole that you fall into and start developing relationships. Then you start going to the conferences, you start rubbing shoulders with other owners, right? So even for me, like we are selling some properties. We're also buying. We are selling. Yes. And so we're we're selling some of the smaller properties that may be better for entry-level, you know, um hoteliers. And so, you know, you want to rub your shoulders with other owners just because they're buying doesn't mean they don't have anything that, you know, that that they want to sell, right? And so I think once you get out of the house and once you start meeting people, rubbing shoulders, like that's how you build those relationships and and then you're able to source the deals, right? Yes.

How This Affects The Business Today

Reshma Vadlamudi 22:50

Most of the deals that we found are also through MLS. Um either like if it's commercial now, we found our deal through Loopnet.

Sujay Mehta 22:59

Yeah.

Reshma Vadlamudi 22:59

And it's hard to believe, like, but then you have to also negotiate for it. Sometimes they're overpriced. Yeah. What does your underwriting look like today today? Like your go or no go criteria.

Sujay Mehta 23:11

I now am able to underwrite with just like my phone and my calculator, and I can make a decision on if we're gonna buy it or not, right? So, like I I told you a little bit about the newest acquisition that we're doing in Ohio right now. Um, and that one I haven't even put it through my like my underwriting calculator that I spent so much money developing. Um, I haven't even put it through that, but I know I'm buying it, right? Like I there's no question in my mind. Um, but it's because I put calculator, I can if I know the top line, like you know, the the NOI, which isn't as important to me anymore because I know I can operate it to a certain efficiency. Yes. Yeah. And so um, if I know the top line, if I know how old the asset is, if I know what the renovation budget is gonna look like, that's kind of all I need. Um, but that's because I've done it enough, right? Um, otherwise, you know, I I get you got to put it into the the spreadsheets, the calculators. If you're gonna raise capital, it has to make sense from an investor perspective, as well as as from a sponsor perspective. Um, it has to be worth your time, right? But at the same time, it has to be enticing enough for your investors. And so, and if you're not raising capital, then then you have a little bit more flexibility and you can look at, you know, if you have a 1031 or if you have more cash or how you're gonna do it. And it in today's market, before we weren't as worried about debt service, right? When interest rates were four or five percent. Yes. Um, I mean, even five, it we didn't have to deal with that until recently, even you know, in 2022 only. But now we also got to see is it is it gonna hit DSCR