WS1229: From Start-Up to Scale Up Through Partnerships with Joel Fine

Starting with a single-family rental five years ago as a side investment to a W2 job, former IT engineer, now Lakeline Properties founder Joel Fine is now a general partner in 1100+ doors, a key principal or limited partner in 7000+ doors across seven states, and a principal in ground-up development projects. The key to his spectacular rise from a small start-up to a big scale-up in real estate investing? Finding the right partners to work with.

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Joel attributes his success to his remarkable collection of partners. He says in each of his past projects, he has teamed up with distinguished, expert investors to find, fund, and buy assets with excellent profit potential. Hear Joel talk about the pathway he took to achieve success in multifamily investing.  Click now to listen and learn some valuable insights.

Key Points From This Episode:   

  • Joel’s professional background in high tech and IT as an engineer.
  • Buying his first real estate investments (single-family rental and duplexes) as a side gig.
  • Joel self-educates on real estate investing through reading books, listening to podcasts, going to meet-ups.
  • He discovers syndication and made his first investment as a passive investor. 
  • Joel deep-dives into learning syndication from his deal syndicators while continuing passive investments.
  • From a dozen passive investments to his first syndication deal as a sponsor.
  • Finding the right partners: a key to success in real estate investing.
  • How adding value to others brings on partnerships and deals?
  • How Joel’s able to trust his co-sponsors in investing?
  • How the syndication model became an eye-opening experience that unlocked big value and a new path for Joel?
  • Joel’s outlook into the real estate industry’s future and his preparations for a downturn.
  • Ways that Joel improves his business and how he meets new investors.
  • Why Joel loves the unstructured nature of the real estate business?

Tweet This!

“Pairing up with people who know the business better than I do, and have more experience and maybe can open more doors, that’s been a key to my path forward.” [0:04:44]

“You’ve got a deal and no money, I’ve got money and no deal, I think we could make something happen here.” [0:07:52]

“I was in a position to write those checks and they were not, and so that was how we add value to each other as they brought the deal, I brought the money.” [0:08:14]

“It’s a cliche that real estate is a team sport, but it’s a cliche because it’s true.” [0:11:18]

“I hate losing more than I like winning so I’d like to be conservative.” [0:18:18]

“One of the things I love about what I do now is it’s so unstructured. I can approach it any way I want. Every day is just a new set of tasks and challenges and things. And now that I’m my own boss, I don’t have a W-2, when I feel like taking a day off, I just block my calendar.” [0:24:58]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Joel Fine on LinkedIn

Email Joel Fine

Lakeline Properties website

About Joel Fine

Joel Fine is a full-time real estate investor, syndicator, and land developer based in Austin, TX. He is a General Partner in 1000+ doors; a Key Principal or Limited Partner in 7000+ doors across seven states; and a Principal in ground-up development projects spanning 30 acres in the greater Austin area. His astute business expertise developed over a 30+year career in high tech as a business owner, entrepreneur, executive, program manager, and engineer. He is a father of four phenomenal young adults and husband to a fantastic supportive wife.

Full Transcript

EPISODE 1229

[INTRODUCTION]

0:00:00.3 

Joel Fine (JF): As I understood the syndication model better and better, I realized it’s really a partnership at its most fundamental level. It’s a very specialized kind of partnership where people have roles, some people run the deal and do the work, other people write the checks and then collect payments but are otherwise passive. That’s phenomenal. Everybody gets to focus on what they like to do and where they can add value, and together you can take down much bigger deals and scale-up way faster than you could on your own.

0:00:31.0 

Whitney Sewell (WS): This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Today our guest is Joel Fine. I met Joel actually when he was hosting an event, in a panel that I was on a few months back. It’s a pleasure to have him on the show. He has just an amazing path into this business. Now he’s a full-time real estate investor, syndicator and even a developer. He’s based out of Austin, a general partner in 1100-plus doors, key principal. He’s a limited partner in 7000-plus doors across seven or eight states. He’s kinda hit this business head-on and has grown very fast. We talk about some of those starting points for him that are so common. I hear people every week talk about some of the same limiting beliefs as far as partnerships and finding partners and moving forward with partners. Should I? Should I not? I’m having to get part of the deal away. We go into a little bit about that, about how he’s grown so fast, and it would not have happened if he was not willing to find those partners and go through that process of making that partnership happen, making it work. Now, he sponsored numerous projects in different capacities and is doing big stuff. We talk about many parts of that process. That thing is going to be very helpful for you today.

[INTERVIEW]

0:01:47

WS: Joel, welcome to the show. I was honored to be on a panel you were hosting not too long ago in another conference. A pleasure to see that you’re a part of our show as well. With your background, you’re going to be a great guest, to share with the listeners a little bit about your transition into real estate. Why real estate? When was that? And then, I know you’re a 1000-plus-doors as a general partner now. So, let’s get into it.

0:02:12.8 

JF: Absolutely, thank you so much for having me, Whitney. My background, I actually was trained as an engineer in college and worked in high tech and IT for many years as an engineer, and then as a project manager and a program manager working closely with engineers. Sometime about five years ago, I started investing in real estate as a side gig, bought a single-family house, then a duplex, then a quad, and two more duplexes, and started scaling up from there. Right about the same time I was beginning to invest, I also learned about the syndication model that was brand new to me until relatively recently. When I learned about it, I was intrigued, but this is something I want to learn about. Maybe I want to participate in it.

0:02:50

WS: You didn’t think it was a big hoax like some people?

0:02:52 

JF: I wasn’t sure. It sounded too good to be true. So, you’re right, I was skeptical and I wanted to do my due diligence. So at that time, since I was investing in investment real estate, I was just on my own with the little stuff. But I was also going to meet-ups, reading books, just trying to educate myself on the real estate industry and investing in real estate. One of the meet-ups I was attending was run by a group of four investors who were doing their own syndication, buying apartment complexes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, fixing them up, and selling them. And they were doing pretty well with that. So, I got to talking with them. Eventually, I invested in one of their deals as a passive investor, talk with them at length, and got them to let me dial into their property management calls every week. So, once a week I would just dial in and go on mute and listen as a way to inform myself, educate myself, not just about my investment, but also about syndication and how they work and how to manage an asset. 

Over time I developed, I guess, an understanding of what goes on. I decided to, hey, this isn’t rocket science, I could figure this out. I would observe what are the problems they’re having, how do they resolve them, which problems persisted from one week to the next. And one of the things that I concluded was a lot of the skills that it takes to be an asset manager, they’re actually pretty similar to the skills that I had developed in my career as a program manager – figuring out deliverables, holding people accountable for what they say they’re going to do, following up when things aren’t done. All those things.

0:04:13.3 

JF: It’s block and tackle. It’s not rocket science. And so I thought, okay, maybe I can do this. Maybe this looks interesting. It’s promising. So, I did a few more passive investments. As I was doing those passive investments, it was sort of intentional to learn enough about the business that if I were to choose to do my own, to sponsor my own deals, that I would be capable of doing that at some point. So, I think I ended up doing about a dozen passive investments before I did my first sponsored deal. And in that sponsored deal, I partnered up with some folks who had done several deals of their own already. 

Pairing up with people who know the business better than I do, have more experience, and maybe can open more doors, that’s been a key to my path forward. So, that’s what I’ve done. Since then, I’ve syndicated, I think, six deals total of the 1100-plus doors. I’ve even syndicated now a ground-up development deal where we’ve acquired some land just east of Austin. Right by this big brand new Tesla factory where Tesla just moved their headquarters. So, we own some land out there. We’re going to build some apartment buildings. Now, I’m full force in real estate. About two years ago, I moved from California to Texas, right in the middle of Covid. It was kind of an exciting time. At the same time, I left my W2 job to focus full-time on real estate. And I haven’t looked back since.

0:05:25 

WS: That’s awesome. You moved from California to Texas when it seems like you weren’t the only one at that time making that move, right?

0:05:32

JF: Oh my God, there was a convoy of U-Hauls going the same direction.

0:05:35.3 

WS: No doubt about it. Well, it’s interesting, your story, your background. I’ve heard of numerous people make a similar path. However, many people still are hesitant to do what you have done. But, I think it’s great that you took action. You started investing in deals and learning from operators. You reached out to an operator and were able to start participating on those calls just to hear and learn. I just think that was probably very valuable, and it would even help build your relationship with that operator. Until you invested five times or passively went into five deals until sponsoring your own project. Your own deal is no small feat, especially the first one. It seems that’s the hardest one to get done for everyone. So, give us some details on getting to that first project. Was it being on those management calls? Maybe building that relationship with that operator? Or was it other operators? What were a couple of the key things that you did that helped you to get to that first deal of your own?

0:06:38.0 

JF: The first deal I did, I was barely a sponsor on. It was somebody that I had done a KP role for (key principal) where I signed on a loan but I was otherwise passive. And that got me a little deeper into the fold. I, then, partnered up with that person to participate as a sponsor on their next deal, and I helped with the capital raising. But I’ll put “help” in quotes ’cause really, I only raised, maybe from one or two other investors at the minimum level for that syndication. But he put me on the list of sponsors and I got to put that on my resume and tell everybody – Hey, now I’m a sponsor. So, the first deal, the first real estate deal that I did was 42 doors in Austin. That one unfolded in a really fun way. So, a couple of young men reached out to me on LinkedIn, young men who lived in the Austin area, and they were just trying to connect with other folks in the space. They saw my LinkedIn resume, and I think they might have run across me on a meet-up or something. And they said, hey, let’s have coffee sometime.

0:07:34 

JF: I said, sure, why not. This was about a year ago. We went and had coffee, chatted, and got to know each other a little bit. Towards the end of the time we were together, they mentioned, “Hey, by the way, we just got this deal under contract, we need to come up with some earnest money for it by the end of the week and the guy who was going to put up the earnest money kinda dropped out of the deal, so, if you know anybody, connect us up”. And I said, “guess what, guys, you’ve got a deal and no money, I’ve got money and no deal, I think we could make something happen here.” So, they shared their underwriting with me. I went to tour the property. We went through a period of due diligence on each other. Got to know them a little better, and I decided I wanted to be a part of that deal.

I went ahead and ponied up the earnest money and some legal fees and a loan application fee for them. I was in a position to write those checks and they were not, and so that was sort of how we add value to each other as they brought the deal, I brought the money. We closed on that property in April, and it’s been going gangbusters. When we bought it, the rents were $950 a month, we underwrote it at $1100. And after we finished the first pop-in renovation, we rented that one for $1250 and the next one was $1275. So, we just were blowing the doors off our projections. Since then, I’ve done two more deals closed already and one more in contract with those two young men.

0:08:44.6 

WS: Awesome. Wow, that’s incredible. So, I think a lot of people would think – “Wait a minute, Joel, you just met these guys and you partnered with them on this deal? How did you know that it would be a good partnership or you were willing to partner with them on such short notice?” They needed this money, it sounded like within a week. So, walk through that a little bit. I’m sure that listeners are saying – “No, wait a minute now. I’m not going to partner with somebody that quick or hand them all that money and I’ve only known them for a few days.”

0:09:11.7 

JF: Yeah, that’s a fair point. And honestly, sometimes I’m kind of a “ready-fire-aim” kind of guy. I’m biased towards action, and that’s got me in trouble a few times. But, it’s helped me get into the syndication and blaze this trail way fast than I would have otherwise. So, like I said, I did some due diligence on the young men. They were connected with one of the major real estate networks you folks might have heard of. And they have actually each done a deal, sort of the same way I had done a deal, in the sense that they participated with another sponsor and they did a tiny little bit of a capital raise and got themselves named as co-sponsors. So, I knew that they had done their homework as far as understanding the industry and how to do it, how to do deals. Really for me, it was partly about them and partly about the deal. I felt good about the deal. I felt like, hey, this is an opportunity to jump in. If it doesn’t go well, it’s not the end of the world. Maybe I’ll lose a few thousand bucks, but as I’ve said, you can call that a seminar. You end up losing a little bit of money on something like that and you learn something. Well, it was just an expensive seminar so I was willing to do it and take that risk. 

0:10:12.8 

WS: Hats off to you. Congratulations on making that happen. But it sounds like it built a great relationship with these guys as well. You’ve all done numerous projects now together. If you just said no to that then you’d have missed out on numerous projects. Something else I want to highlight is that it seems obvious to you, or to me, it looks like it was obvious to you pretty quickly that they had something you needed, you had something they needed, and you all could go make this happen. From what you talked about before we started recording, it’s like you had to overcome thinking that you had to do it all yourself. Just speak to that a little bit. That’s so common in our business. There is no way that I can personally be an expert in every part of the syndication business and do it well, and to scale the way we want to scale and to treat our investors the way we want to treat them, and finding their deals and brokers. It’s not possible for me to be in all those places and do all those things and do them as well as I want. so you have to build a team. How did you get past that thought process of, “I can’t do this all on my own, I’m willing to find partners and move forward that way,”

0:11:18.8 

JF: Yeah, absolutely. It’s a cliche that real estate is a team sport, but it’s a cliche ’cause it’s true. I have this fundamental limiting belief when I was starting to invest that I had to do things on my own. So, when I bought my first single-family investment property, when I bought a duplex here, a triplex there, I was thinking, okay, I have to do this on my own. And so whatever I’m going to buy, the bank will come up with 75% of the purchase price. I gotta do the other 25%. And so it sort of manifests itself as a belief that I had to come up with the financial means to buy everything that I wanted to buy. So, when I learned about the syndication model, my focus was on the financial limitations. At that time when I was first learning about it, I didn’t understand how effective the syndication model could be in filling in other gaps in my skill list, in my resume, in my contacts list. That all came a little later. For me, it was initially just, hey, I can buy a $5 million asset and I only have to put in $50,000?

0:12:14.2 

JF: That’s phenomenal. That means I’m coming up with 1% of the purchase price instead of 25%. So, this is a fantastic way to scale. As I understood the syndication model better and better, I realized, it’s really a partnership at its most fundamental level. It’s a very specialized kind of partnership where people have roles, some people run the deal and do the work, other people write the checks and then collect payments but are otherwise passive. That’s phenomenal. Everybody gets to focus on what they would like to do and where they can add value, and together you can take down much bigger deals and scale-up way faster than you could on your own. So, for me, what I learned about the syndication model, it was an eye-opening, epiphany moment that unlocked tremendous value and a whole new path for me. 

0:12:56.4 

WS: It’s such an incorrect thought process, thinking that “oh, I’ve got to give part of the deal away being in a partnership. I think it’s so backward because if you can have 5% of a $100-million deal, that’s amazing, versus all of a duplex, right? What do you think is going to be better there? But I just think it’s a lot more fun to have a team that you’re working with. It also minimizes risk because you all have different skill sets, you all have different eyes on everything you’re looking at, and everybody has different questions and it raises things that you may not probably see if you were just doing it by yourself.

0:13:35.2 

JF: Absolutely. Not only that. It’s helped me to expand further and faster than I would have for another reason, which is as it emerged, I found that my skill set and my value to teams tend to be on the front end. So, I’m focused on helping to make the transaction happen. Once we close on the property, I help with the asset management. But, I’m not really driving the effort. I’m not in charge of that and so because of that, I’m spending relatively little time on the properties that I already own, that we’ve already closed. But the rest of my team handles most of the day-to-day, and I can go off and focus on the next deal, and the next deal, and the next deal. So, that’s helped me scale way faster than I would have. If I somehow have the means to do syndication on my own, I’d be doing the asset management, I’d be doing the work with the property manager, figuring out the renovation plan, understanding which tenants we’ve got to evict, and how to fill vacancies and all that. Yeah, the property manager is in charge of that, but the asset manager definitely has to be involved. And by handing off that responsibility and focusing on where I can add value, that’s helped me do many more deals than I would have otherwise.

0:14:36.1 

WS: What would you do differently if you could go back five years, maybe even 10 years with what you know now? What would you do differently about getting into real estate or syndication or anything? Any tips for the person that’s listening right now that may be in a similar spot?

0:14:50.3 

JF: It’s probably the same answer you’re going to get from everybody – start earlier. So, I’ll start earlier and go bigger. I would have house-hacked first, right out of college. I’d have bought something, anything, and bring in roommates, whether it’s a duplex or a single-family, and just rent out the rooms or whatever and just get started that way. 

0:15:07.7 

WS: Yeah, to a lot of that. I wish somebody had pushed me in that direction in a big way. I may not have listened though. 

Joel, do you have any predictions for the real estate market over the next six, twelve months? Anything you’re expecting to happen or maybe you’re planning for? Anything like that?

0:15:25.5 

JF: I try to stay out of the prediction business. Other than just to say, at any given point in time, the future looks uncertain and it always will look uncertain. You always will be facing risks of things going worse than you expect. So, you just try to be reasonably conservative in your assumptions when you’re underwriting deals and making decisions. A couple of big risks I see right now are: one, inflation is rearing its head. With the supply chain issues, I can see that’ll jolt prices even more, which could create more uncertainty, could increase interest rates, can trickle down into difficult pricing. On the other hand, in inflationary times, real estate assets tend to hold their value and rental will probably rise, too. So, that will have a counter-balancing effect. So, I try not to get paralyzed with fear over that possibility. 

Another thing that I think is a potential risk in the areas that I invest in – I’m focused mostly in Texas, in fact, all of my active deals are in Texas, I’m passive in some other states but sponsoring deals in Austin and Houston – we’re just getting a tremendous influx of people from other states, especially California and New York, Illinois, places where it’s more challenging to do business, places where it’s tougher to create jobs. We’ve got a relatively low cost of living, and that influx of immigrants from other states is driving a lot of the growth in the Texas market. So, that could change. Those other states could rise up and say, “Hey, let’s not be so hostile to businesses and landlords and profit, and let’s not tax our citizens quite so heavily, and let’s rethink how we’re approaching things.”

0:16:53.4 

JF: Luckily, they don’t show any sign of doing that. So, that’s the Texas benefit. I’m super happy to be in Texas now but the inflation and the pause and the immigration into Texas, those are the two big risks that I would see in the next six to twelve months. 

0:17:08.8 

WS: No, that’s awesome. That’s an interesting take on that. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone talk about that potential risk of those states opening their eyes and seeing what’s happening here. I’m not sure I expect that that’d actually happen but it is something to keep in mind. On that note, tell me a little bit about how you prepare for a downturn. You’re looking at new deals, those things to happen. None of us has a crystal ball, of course not. I stay out of the prediction business and I think it’s wise. How do you look at just being prepared for something potentially like those things happening?

0:17:39.0 

JF: Well, two things. Like I said earlier, one thing is just to try to be conservative in your underwriting. So, when I’m looking at a deal, I like to see, for example, a prediction of, let’s say, 2% to 3% rent growth at most, not 5% to 6% or higher even though Austin consistently over the last couple of decades has been 5% to 6%. If we can make a deal work with more conservative assumptions and not just about rent but other factors as well, then I can feel good about that deal and maybe allow them to perform like the one I described earlier. We predicted $1100 rents, we’re getting $1250, that’s phenomenal. I love having a positive surprise. I like winning way more than, well let me put it this way, I hate losing more than I like winning. So, I’d like to be conservative. The other thing I do, I don’t know if you’d call it preparing for a downturn, but I just take a long-term perspective. Anytime I invest in one of these deals, whether it’s active or passive, I’m still investing in more deals as a passive as well as the deals that I’m sponsoring, anytime I invest in one of those deals, I think, okay, that money is stuck in that investment at least three years, probably much more than that.

0:18:42.7 

JF: Let’s call it five to seven. I’m not going to see a dime. Maybe I’ll get some cash flow in which case I’ll be tickled pink. But if for some reason the cash flow is interrupted because they gotta work heavily on the renovations or whatever, that’s not my grocery money. It’s money that I got tucked away for the long-term, maybe even for a family legacy. So, I’m not going to worry about it. I’ll just, I’ll read their updates every now and then. I’ll kinda keep an eye on it, make sure they’re on track, I’m not going to worry day-to-day about it. It’s just that money is sunk and it’ll come back to me in a few years.

0:19:12.6 

WS: You’re every operator’s dream LP right there. Now, I think that’s very wise as well. Yeah, I was talking to one of our larger investors this morning about liquidity. It’s like, I just always try to say, it’s not liquid, it is not liquid. I hope you don’t need it for grocery money. If you do, do not, do not put it in one of these deals and anybody’s. So, I appreciate the level of detail as well, just elaborating on being conservative and what that looks like to you. I think you made some great points for any of us that are passive as well. I am, as well, in other people’s deals, and obviously in our own. Tell me a little bit about or one thing about how you’re improving your business now that you are scaling and as you’re becoming an operator and doing more deals and more active deas as well.

0:20:01.3 

JF: I guess a couple of things. One is, I’ve recently signed on to a new investor portal called Cash Flow Portal. That one’s helping me keep track of my investors and helping me communicate with them. I’m also using a CRM system (customer relations management) to keep track of my contacts, which is really essential especially for syndicators because Whitney as I’m sure you know well, the audience may not understand it as well, for the 506b syndication, you have to have a personal substantive relationship with every investor before they can be in a deal. And so I use that CRM, not only to keep track of people but also to document. So, I’ll take notes when I have a conversation with somebody that I believe has helped contribute to that substantive relationship. I’ll write up some notes, I’ll date it the right date so I know exactly when I had that conversation. That way I keep all my ducks in a row, or in case the SEC ever comes calling saying, “How do we know that you really have these relationships that our rules say you have to have?” So, that’s one way I try to maintain my business and protect it against some kind of issue.

0:21:02.8 

WS: Yeah, great advice. The best CRM is the one that you use. I actually use it ’cause no doubt, in our business, it’s so important that you are documenting those relationships and taking some notes about phone calls when you talk to people so you can show that trail of relationship building. You didn’t know them before you launch a new project or opportunity. Quickly, what CRM are you using, Joel?

0:21:27
JF: It’s called HubSpot.

0:21:28.2 

WS: Okay, awesome. We use HubSpot as well. It’s a base, it’s a lot to learn, but it’s very robust too depending on what level you’re in it. But I would say at a higher level, it’s pretty expensive, but it can do a ton of things.

0:21:42.4 

JF: I’m 100% sure that I’m using less than 1% of what it can do.

0:21:45.5 

WS: Yeah, we’ve not maximized, but we’re working at it. What’s your best source for meeting new investors now?

0:21:52.0 

JF: I run a meet-up once a month in Austin, and that meet-up has actually really caught fire. We’ve been running it for about a year now. In the first few meetings, we had maybe six to eight people at each one. There was one meeting, we have three. That was really kind of depressing. But we changed the venue, we changed up the format a little bit. We now do half an hour of networking and then half an hour of education where my partners and I will present on some topics relevant to investors like capital raising or how you make money as a syndicator. And then after we’re done with the education, we could go back to networking and then people just hang out for another hour, hour and a half just talking. In the last few months, we’ve had 40 plus people. The one we just held last Monday, we had 78, so it was a packed house. 

0:22:34

WS: Wow, that’s awesome. 

0:22:35

JF: So that was a great way to meet new investors but also just a fun way to deliver value to people, helping them connect and helping to educate people. It’s a mix of beginners and experienced syndicators. And so with that mix, there’s a lot of different perspectives on how much people know what they want to know, what topics are helpful to people. It’s great to bring everybody up to a similar level in terms of their understanding of these topics.

0:23:03.0 

WS: What’s the frequency? Weekly? Monthly? 

0:23:04 

JF: Once a month. First Monday of the month.

0:23:06:

WS: I appreciate you mentioning that and even you saying that the first year, it was limited. Sometimes three people there, and that would be discouraging. But you didn’t stop there even if it’s just not working. Even after a year, you changed it up. You said you changed the venue, changed the structure of the meeting, and now up to 70 some people. Congratulations on making that happen. That’s incredible. I say, anybody listening, there are opportunities like that. And in a place like Texas, there are tons of real estate meet-ups. There are a plethora of them, I believe. I’ve been to some of them there. But Joel’s able to keep this going and have 70 some people at his meet-up where he’s in front of the room presenting himself as the expert and he’s become the expert because of that, the work he’s put in. Congratulations for making that happen.

0:23:54.0 

JF: That’s a great point, actually. That by running that meet-up, the perception in the room is I’m an expert on the topic. I feel like I have become a bit of an expert now that I’ve done some syndications, but initially, I really wasn’t the fake it till you make it. I’m the guy up there in the front of the room and I’m presenting, and every now and then a question comes in, and I’m like, “Well, I don’t know how to answer that one.” But by organizing the meet-up and being the presenter, that’s the perception people have of not just an expert but a leader in the field. 

0:24:20.2 

WS: That is right, so true. But also a point you just made too is that you are in front of the room, you’re organizing this maybe before you’ve done syndication or before you felt like you were an expert anyway. You don’t have to wait till you’ve done a bunch of deals to go start a podcast or to start your own meet-up. Those are just some great points on so many limiting beliefs around those things. 

What about some daily habits, Joel, that you are disciplined about that have helped you achieve this level of success?

0:24:48.1 

JF: You know what’s funny is I tried to think about that ’cause I know you ask your guest that, and I don’t know that I have too many specific daily habits. I check my email all the time. I’ve got some things that I check on each property now and then. But one of the things I love about what I do now is it’s so unstructured. I can approach it any way I want. Every day is just a new set of tasks and challenges and things. And now that I’m my own boss, I don’t have a W-2, when I feel like taking a day off, I just block my calendar and hey, it looks blocked on Calendly, nobody’s going to be able to make a meeting with me. That’s it, I get that day off. For me, it’s just so much fun to be in the business because of that, because of the unstructured and independent nature of it. It matches well with my personality. I tell people I’ve got what I call my glide path to retirement, which is, if this ever becomes less fun for me, if it feels like work, at any point, I’ll just stop doing the sponsor deals. I’ll just go fully passive ’cause I know lots of syndicators now, I get at least five or six deals a day in my inbox. It won’t be any problem for me to just stop doing active deals and just be passive in everybody else’s deal and live on the cash flow. So, I’m having fun. I’m going to keep doing it. And as long as it stays that way, I’ll continue. But eventually, maybe I’ll get tired of it and I’ll do something else.

0:25:57.3 

WS: Yeah. No, that’s awesome. The freedom is just an amazing part of it being an entrepreneur, no doubt about it, especially in this business. I love that as well.

Joel, how do you like to give back?

0:26:07:

JF: A variety of ways. At a fundamental level, as a syndicator, I’m improving tenants’ lives by renovating the properties, by making them nicer, improving my investors’ lives by giving them a great return on their money and giving them an opportunity to diversify their portfolios. I also love to help connect people and educate through my meet-ups and other venues. Back when I was in California, I ran a non-profit focused on education. We would bring in speakers on a monthly basis to talk about current events and cultural topics. I haven’t found a group like that in Texas yet to connect with but I’d love to. But yeah, I do what I can to serve others in my capacity as a syndicator and a real estate investor.

0:26:48.7 

WS: Awesome. Even giving back to your meet-up as well, helping educate others and connect to others. Joel, grateful to get to know you better and have you as a guest on the show. Your path in this business is one that others can take as well. There are tons of limiting beliefs that you also help just blow out of the water today, whether it’s doing it on your own or starting big, you wished you started much earlier. By finding those partners, like you have done investing passively, even connecting with those operators so you can learn more about the business and sitting on those property management calls to now sponsoring many projects and moving forward in a big way and having that freedom like you’re talking about that most dream of because they’re not willing to be a little uncomfortable and get past those limiting beliefs oftentimes like Joel said.

Thank you again so much. Tell the listeners how they can get in touch with you to learn more about you.

0:27:41.5 

JF: Yeah, so I’ve got a website. My business is Lakeline Properties so Lakelineproperties.com, L-A-K-E-L-I-N-E Properties. On that website, I keep a list of books and podcasts that have helped educate me and Whitney, your podcast is right there at the top of the podcasts. So, they can either go to my website, they can email me at [email protected] and yeah, I’d love to hear from other folks who maybe I can partner up with in some way, whether they’re passive investors or have a deal that I can help out with. Love to talk about real estate.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[OUTRO]

0:28:14.7

WS: Thank you for being a loyal listener to the Real Estate Syndication Show. Please subscribe and like the show. Share it with your friends so we can help them as well. Don’t forget, go to the www.LifeBridgeCapital.com where you can sign up and start investing in real estate today, Have a blessed day! 

[END]

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