Exactly How to Raise Private Capital!

Hello YouTube, welcome back. This is Christian. I'm joined again by Sole Cayetano. She is helping us with the channel for the entire month. So everyone, welcome her back. If you haven't yet, follow her on Lattes and Laces. And Sole, you just started a YouTube channel as well, didn't you? What is that channel so people can find you there?

I did. It's also Lattes and Laces. It's a lot smaller than your guys's, but It's working its way up. We have 100 subscribers.

Well, I'm sure you're going to put one post on your Instagram, which is a lot bigger than ours, and you'll have more followers than we do. If you haven't liked or subscribed to either channel yet, please do both because it really helps us grow and get the message out to people. This week we are talking about raising private capital. Now, Sole's done this at a younger age than I did. Cody and I do a lot with private capital. By the way, if you didn't notice, seller financing is also just another form of private capital, which is what we do a ton of. But Solee's done this in multiple states, anywhere but where you live. Would love to hear more about your adventure in private capital, the hurdles you had, and really how you land that pitch. I think the biggest question that we get regarding capital is, I am scared to ask the question. Can I borrow money for this deal? So for you, Sully, how do you start to put together that presentation when you always start with the deal? So you found the opportunity and you're bringing it from investor. What did it look like the first time and what does it look like today for you?

So I think if you watch the last video, you'll get a better sense of like my story, how I started. So if you haven't watched that, go watch that and link it there. Yes. But so we can start with my— the first time I raised private capital. So, and then it gets easier from there. So I started at a young age, I started at 22 years old, I bought my first property all by myself. And I saved up $50,000 over 3 years or something to get a conventional loan, buy that first property, and then ran out of money. And so after I ran out of money, I really want to buy more real estate, didn't want to wait 3 more years and had to figure out where I was getting the money from. So the whole time I bought my first property, I was putting myself out there on Instagram. I was building my brand. I didn't have that many followers, maybe like 2,000 or 3,000, but I was consistently showing up and kind of vlogging the whole thing. Like, I had some meltdowns on camera. Like, they saw everything. It was like a crazy vlog, and I kind of missed those days. Um, but through that, I think I built a lot of credibility because people saw me every day. They just knew my story. They knew I was, you know, persisting through a bunch of troubles. And actually, my, my mom reached out to me and said, hey, I'm so proud of like everything you've done, and I've watched you go through your whole first property, and if possible, I'd love to be part of your second deal. So I never even thought— I didn't even know my mom had money to invest because I don't come from like family with money. And I was like, whoa, Mom, where'd you get that money from? Um, and so I was like I didn't even know it was a thing, but she wanted to invest. And so I was wanting to find my second property, and I, I was like, okay, I can use her money for a down payment on the second property, and that's how I was going to get it done. Um, and so that's what I did for my first property, raising private money. I— someone else reached out to me because I had taken the initiative to build a brand, provide value, and put myself out there on the internet. So they just She just came to me. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that is absolutely fantastic. And one of the things that I really held on to there, this is something I actually learned from a Grant Cardone video. Love him or hate him, he has some good videos out there. But it's telling your story along the way. No one tells the story from the very beginning, or at least very few people do. I think that's why your Instagram took off as much as it did, is you started from the beginning before you were a big deal, before BiggerPockets started picking you up. It was just, hey, I'm figuring this out and I'm gonna document the journey. And not only did you document it, but then you actually did all the things you said you would do. Calling your shot builds so much credibility.

And I also think it's very motivating because I think that I would not have accomplished a lot of the things I did if I didn't have the accountability of me saying— I mean, I didn't have that many followers. Again, it was like 1,000 people. But to me, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm telling 1,000 people that I'm going to do this every single week, and if I don't do it, I'm going to disappoint them. So for me, it was like an inherent accountability to taking action because I told the internet I was going to take action.

That's awesome. And so your, your mom invested in your second deal. You said she didn't have a ton of money, so she, she'd invest in all your other deals. You've done a significant amount more real estate. So as your channel's grown, as your brand has grown, what does raising capital look like for you today versus where it did in the very beginning?

So here's the awesome part is so after she funded that deal, I— everyone was asking, okay, how do you fund your second deal? Because I already told them I ran out of money. And so then I started saying like, oh, I raised private capital to buy that second deal. And that started a lot of conversations on what is private capital? What kind of returns did you give her? Oh, like, would you be interested in maybe doing the same for me? And so it's, it Honestly, just broadcasting that you use private capital to fund deals has started hundreds and hundreds of conversations for me. And the more deals I buy with private money, the more I tell people I fund my deals with private money, the more private lenders come to me and say they want to do the same. So that's kind of how I've built up— all the rest of my deals are pretty much all funded with private money. By that first deal saying that I used private money and attracting so many other people.

And that goes into one of Cody and my favorite sayings, which is the story is worth more than the real estate. And if there's anything that anyone takes out of this video on private capital, it's that one piece. Your story is more powerful than any one deal you're going to do. And yes, you need to be able to present a deal. I mean, of course you need to be able to say, hey, this is the property, this is why I like it, this is what the investment opportunity is. You need to have the basics. But at the end of the day, people want to invest in the person, not just the property. And when people are raising capital to invest with Soli or they're investing capital in any deal that you have, I guarantee you it's not just because you found the coolest 8-unit office building or the best duplex in Georgia. It's because they believe in you and your track record and your story. And correct me if I'm wrong, but this has been the experience for Cody and I. Every deal you do and every story that you tell the next deal is easier to raise money for. Has that been true for you?

Yeah, no, there's every— all the time. I never have to reach out to people anymore trying to beg them to lend money to me for my deals. Now everybody reaches out to me and I have a list of— I didn't check before this, but last time I checked it was like 400 investors who then want to invest in my deals. And so every time I have a deal now, I send it out to the list of investors and someone ends up investing in it. But as a resource for your audience, I do, I know it is important to know what to say, how to say it, and come up with like a professional presentation. And so I do have a free private money presentation that I can give to you. You can link it below so that they can download it. And then it's a Canva file so they can edit in their pictures and their colors and stuff. And then boom, they have a professional presentation for their next private money pitch.

Oh, that is really cool. I have never put together a presentation. Our pitch has always been a phone call and a coffee meeting. It's always been a verbal— like, this again, we're highly relationship-based. But yeah, I've never even put together a presentation or put together a document. It's just been, hey, we want to do this. One of my favorite deals we've done, um, the property was just fine. It was really close to another property owned with the same investor, but we called them and we're like, this property has apricot trees and the other one didn't. He's like, well, dude, we have to buy it.

That's funny. I think it helps for people who get nervous. Like, I like to know what I'm going to say and have some type of structure. And like, I work better in a PowerPoint. And so I even made— this is the literally the exact presentation I gave my mom for that second deal. So I'm sure she would have invested with me because she loves me, but I wanted to treat it like a, like a professional meeting. And so I put together a like 18-page slideshow for her. And I made her jump— I don't know if she was living near me, but like jump on a call and say, I'm going to walk through this presentation with you. I'm going to tell you about my goals. I'm going to tell you about my core values. I'm going to tell you about my past experience, which is a total of 1, and what this property like was going to return you. And I, I still use a variation of that presentation today. And now I just like send out the deck and then people respond and like, that's it. So that's like the whole, the whole thing.

That's awesome. And there's another point that I really like to highlight is that there's not just one way to do this and capital is not all that hard to raise if you have the right deal, whether you're doing it through story, whether you're doing it through presentation, it's whatever you're comfortable presenting. But as long as you can create a clear picture verbally, visually through a video, however you want to put it together of here's the property, like This is the actual building. People skip that step for some reason. I don't know why. Like, show them why it's cool.

I skipped it before. I forgot to put the address in the picture.

Well, I'm not calling you out, but, uh, people love to see like, hey, this is the project. Like when we raised for the Robin Hood Village Resort, it's like, this is a beautiful campus. Like, you want to be part of the deal, right? So whether it's in the deck or it's in the video or it's in the— what's worked for us is You know, tell them why you love the property first and then be able to clearly answer questions about the numbers. It doesn't have to be super detailed, but it's, you know, what is the yield? What are the expenses? What hurdles do you expect to have? Be really upfront about those. And like, here's the challenges, here's our reward for overcoming those challenges, and this is the opportunity. Is this something that you're interested in investing in? You make it really simple and away you go. And we'll absolutely link your presentation here. I can take some pieces from yours. I'm sure if I have a document for someone, they're going to appreciate it.

You don't need it. You can print it out and bring it to your coffee meetings. But I would say a lot of people, because I have found all of my private lenders essentially on social media, and I hear a lot of people like, I don't like social media, I don't have social media, how am I supposed to do it if I don't have social media? And so I think that you don't have to have social media. It makes it easier because people come to you. But if you don't want to find your lenders through social media, you can go find them out in the community, whether you go to meetup.com, or like the local REIA, or some other real estate meetups. It's putting yourself in rooms where there are people who have some money, who understand the investor mindset, and who would be willing to network with you. So I would say for people who don't want to do it through social media, I think it's a great way to do it because people are literally begging to invest in your deals. There's another way— go out into the community, become a participating member in different meetups, and like find your buddy that way too.

Yeah. And there's a lot of ways to do it. I would say if you're doing the meetup thing and you really wanna play this game at a high level, we're at a point in human history where you just have to jump into the social media. Like it, it is going to be, like you said, it's so much easier if you're telling your story on the largest platform that we've ever had to tell your story. And you've done a phenomenal job of it. You're notably better than Cody and I as your, your Instagram is way more than both of ours combined.

But, um, it's not better, it's just cuter, I would say.

Well, I don't know that I could do much to help that piece, but I can, uh, no matter who you are, you need to tell your story to as many people as you can on as many platforms. I really feel that this is a, uh, real estate is a contact sport. The more contacts you have, the more ability you have to expand, to raise capital, to find deals. You do it in person and meetups, you do it online, you do it through messages, you do it through phone calls. But the more volume you have regardless of what platform, the better you will do.

And if you don't want to start, I think your point was so good earlier that if a lot of people don't want to start because they don't feel like they have anything good to say, they don't feel like they have any value that they can add back into the community, but I seriously think that it is one of the reasons why my account is successful is because there are thousands of people who have been with me. They message me all the time from like zero doors, no doors, and everyone's like rooting for you. There's like, you know, this girl's actually taking action. So many people don't take action ever. They just talk about taking action. And so if you're willing to put it out there and then do it, even if you don't have any experience today, you probably have the best, better chance of success starting with nothing and proving that you're going to do something than if you are— have 50 units and no one knows your story from the beginning.

Absolutely, absolutely. And by the way, uh, anyone who has any ideas or questions regarding this, we're all going to be responding in the comments section to this video. So if you have any additional thoughts on private capital, you have a deal or anything that you need help with, post your comments below now. Solely, is there anything else that you would share in the realm of raising private capital? It's a huge thing. I think what we've mostly covered is you need to share your story, share it early, share it often. Capital is easier to find than deals, so find your deal first. Be confident in your presentation. Is there anything else that we need to cover private capital before we wrap today?

Am I allowed to plug myself?

Please do. You're on the channel. You're co-hosting for the full month. This month is about plugging solely.

Okay, good. So I actually do get asked all the time, like, what documents do I need? You know, what do I say? What emails do I send? How do I find the people? I get asked all the time. It's probably the most frequent questions I get asked is around private money. And so I decided to create a course probably coming out in February, if I were to guess. And so if you are interested in a holistic framework for raising private capital to scale your real estate portfolio, I will also send you the link for the waitlist. And you can just join the waitlist and wait, look out for more details on that.

Awesome. As soon as that launches, we will be reviewing that on this channel as well. I'm sure it will be positive. I'm a big fan of everything that you've done. Um, but everyone look for that, uh, sometime after that drops.

Yes, cool. That's my shameless plug today.

Awesome. Well, YouTube, if you haven't yet, give Soli's channel Lattes and Lisa's— dots between both—

uh, yeah, lattes.and.lisas.

Perfect. Lattes.and.lisas on YouTube. Give her a, uh, her— I mean, you just launched that channel, so Let's blow her up to a few thousand subscribers.

Yes, please do.

Perfect. YouTube, we'll see you guys next week with Soli again.

Thanks, guys.