How to Raise Capital & Not Be A Schmuck with Brian Adams

MANAGE THE RISK | UNLEASH THE PROFITS

Our guest today is Brian Adams, the President and founder of Excelsior Capital, where he deals with investor relations, capital markets, and brings people together for great deals. In this episode, we talk about the 3 phases of his investor journey, how to successfully raise capital, and how the market will look like in the next 12-24months. If you want to become a GP, a sponsor, an investor, or have bigger multifamily deals, and want to know how to create your strategy, this episode is for you! Learn more about Brian and his journey at reiclarity.com!

“You can’t really create wealth through salary”

04:43

Brian started his career as a prosecutor. He married into a real estate investor family and got interested in REI. He searched for a way to build long-term wealth.

According to Brian, there are 4 types of truly wealthy people:

People who were born or married into wealth
People who worked for a corporation and acquired shares of the company over a long period of time
People who started a company and then had some kind of liquidity exit
People with real assets like commodities, commercial real estate, oil, gas, etc.

Brian decided to go with the 4th route and became a real estate investor.

Within the first 5 years of business, he acquired $250M worth of real estate and raised around $75-80M of equity.

09:38

3 phases of an investor’s journey

Departure/adventure: This is the start of the journey, where everything is new and exciting. You have the ideas and expectations about your business and it feels like an adventure.
Initiation/setback: This phase comes with a lot of realization. You start to understand how everything works and see the setbacks in your processes.
Return/redemption: This is the settling phase. You put down the right strategy and now all you have to do is keep the journey going.

Brian is now in the 3rd phase of his journey but talked about all the parts in the episode.

“I have fully embraced and I take full agency over the concept that I’m a salesperson”

11:28

Brian admits that he had shiny object syndrome at the beginning of his journey and the way he raised money was not about the client, but about himself. Eventually, he learned that he had to focus on the investors’ needs in order to successfully raise capital.

In the beginning, Brian didn’t have systems in place. Even though he already had 350 investors, he had poor communication and a lack of transparency. Eventually, he took the feedback and learned from his mistakes, and created a strong and reliable team.

Now, Brian is clear on the 3 key things his investors really want: capital preservation, yield, and the benefits that come from direct real estate ownership from a tax perspective.

Brian’s advice for business owners is to set clear client expectations and boundaries and don’t be afraid to talk about your limitations.

“Ultimately, commercial real estate comes down to population growth”

34:36

At the end of the interview, Adam talks about his insights on REI in the next 12-24 months. He’s been seeing a demographic shift as the millennial generation is moving out of big cities like New York or San Fransisco for a better quality of life. This makes secondary markets along the Sun Belt more popular.

Adam sees an acceleration of this shift due to the current pandemic, so he continues to invest in those upcoming markets.

Mentioned in the show:

Learn how to grow your portfolio and reach incredible success the right way! Visit us here for everything you need to know: www.shineinsurance.com/reiclarity.

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