Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Real Wealth Real Health, the show that empowers you with insights, information, and inspiration to achieve your version of financial wellness. Learn how to balance living a full life today with planning for the future. This podcast is brought to you by Alpha Investing, a real estate centric, private capital network that provides exclusive investment opportunities to its members. And now here are your hosts, AdaPia d’Errico and Daniel Cocca.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Real Wealth Real Health. Today, we’re speaking with Alina Trigub, who is the founder and managing partner of SAMO Financial. SAMO Financial is a boutique private equity firm that specializes in helping busy business owners and IT professionals passively invest in commercial real estate. Alina has helped her clients acquire and invest in over 2200 apartment doors, 45 million in self storage and over 10 million in mobile homes.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Alina’s business model has been articulated well by Warren Buffett, when he said, someone is sitting in the shade today because someone else planted a tree a long time ago. Her passion is to teach others how to build wealth by investing passively. Alina has a very inspiring story from immigrating to the U.S. with her mother and living with very little to start out with, to graduating Cum Laude, with a degree in accounting, working for one of the big five accounting firms, all the way to completing an MBA while working in the IT industry and being a mother herself.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Her inspiration and motivation to invest in real estate stems first and foremost, from her seeking a way to reduce her taxes. In our conversation, we hear about Alina’s holistic approach to passive real estate investing, including sponsor selection, deal diligence, of course, the tax implications of a deal and the importance of transparency across every transaction and interaction. All right, Elena, welcome to the podcast.
Alina Trigub:
Thank you, AdaPia, I’m excited to be here.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah, I’m, I’m really looking forward to our conversation. You have a background very similar to our founder and CEO. And so I’m really looking forward to diving into your story. And the big topic of the day is, The Due Diligence and Building a Portfolio. So why don’t we get started with a little bit of your story? How did you get started as a passive real estate investor?
Alina Trigub:
Sure. So to tell you my real estate story, I would have to step back a bit and talk about how my overall educational professional journey had started, which was back when I was going for my undergraduate degree. So I came here as an immigrant with my mom and with the decision to make as to what kind of career to pursue. And when you’re a poor immigrant with nothing in your pockets and no man in our life. There was my mom and I, and her sister and her daughter. So, four women and a cat, they had a cat. So this was our old begin.
Alina Trigub:
I had to decide what kind of career to pursue. I needed a career that will give me the future that will support us. And I looked at several opportunities and many people said, “Hey, you’re good with numbers, you will probably enjoy accounting.” So that’s how I chose accounting for my undergrad, went for it. Nobody really liked it. But then I have a friend who always said, “Hey, when you get paid, you’ll enjoy it because it’s a well-paid job.” So I thought that will be the case. So I got my first job before even graduating from college with one of the big fives at the time I was still young.
Alina Trigub:
And even though the numbers, I mean, the compensation looked great, I could not force myself to enjoy it. I just didn’t really like it. So I thought, okay, maybe it’s public accounting, maybe I should try private. So I tried that for a little while after, and that still didn’t make me any happier. So I decided that I have to make a career transition and found myself in Information Technology world, leveraging my accounting education and experience and testing accounting applications.
Alina Trigub:
And so I stayed in Information Technology field for over 20 years and really enjoyed the work that I was doing, which was different over the years. But it was mainly to be the liaison between the two worlds, the world of business and the world of technology. And I liked that because I understood how each of the two sides were speaking. And I was able to interpret their language and kind of connect the two worlds.
Alina Trigub:
So I stayed with that and obviously my career progressed and when my husband’s career progressed as well. And while our careers were progressing tax brackets. And there’s a form of tax content, I kept thinking to myself, we get hit with this higher taxes every year. And now this AMT, alternative minimum tax started to kick in, I need to find a way to lower taxes. And so real estate kept coming in front of me, as I was thinking about this, as I was reading different things. And I finally decided to take action and start to dig in deeper into real estate and understand, what does it mean to become a real estate investor?
Alina Trigub:
And so my real estate investing journey began roughly about seven or eight years ago when I finally pulled the plug and I became an active partner in a first indication. And I can probably talk forever about that first experience, which was a very stressful, heart-wrenching. But after I invested in the first one, it kind of escalated and it took off. And I invested in the second, third, and fourth and so forth. And after a while, after talking to my colleagues at work and friends and family and mind you I’m surrounded by a lot of financial folks because, number one, I lived close to Wall Street in New Jersey, across the border from New York. Number two, a lot of my friends have also similar backgrounds, my accounting finances, and none of them have ever heard the word syndication.
Alina Trigub:
And it’s just, boggled my mind. How come I went through two degrees, I had the accounting undergrad, MBA in finance. I have never heard of syndications. None of my friends ever heard of it. People don’t know it exists, and yet I am reaping the rewards with passively investing. I have to do something about it. I have to help all these other people find a way to passively invest in real estate, have a portfolio outside of Wall Street, and also find a way to lower the taxes, which was why I selected the state investing in the first place. And that’s how the idea of SAMO Financial was born with the sole purpose to help other people. And obviously the wealth over the last three or so years. But that’s how I began my journey.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Wow. That’s amazing. And, it’s not dissimilar from how a lot of other people have started their journey where they’re looking for vehicles to lower their taxes or more recently in the past few years. I’m sure you’ve seen this also for yourself looking for passive income, because they know there’s a better way, there’s the volatility in the stock market. You… I wanted to touch on a couple of things. You got started, you said seven or eight years ago. So, that would put us right at the height of the great recession. How did that go when you started there?
Alina Trigub:
Great question. So again, I put a lot of efforts into doing my research and looking at various syndications there. So far, learning more about different operators. And for me personally, it always comes down to investing with the right partner operator. So I’ve put a kind of effort into doing that. And when I selected the operator to invest with, it was based on multiple factors. Number one, it was their track record. Number two, it was their approach to business overall and how they were selecting and buying properties and repositioning. I liked how they were more or less repeating the same process in the same geographical vicinity and implementing the same strategy over and over again. And it was more or less, by reposition refinance and repeat the sort of process. And that’s what this operator have done and was continuing to do. And that’s how after speaking with them, I decided that this is who I’m going to select.
Alina Trigub:
What also reinforced my decision was, there was this one funny story or so. At one point during the offering, the operator had emailed all of the potential investors for the offering. And instead of BCC the people, I guess by mistake, they CCB everyone. So I took the opportunity and emailed every single person on the list, asking them about the operator, whether they worked with them in the past and what was their outcome. And I received two responses. I spoke with two people that worked with the operator in the past. And that reinforced my decision to work with the operator. And actually I’m still very good friends with both of these people, but the operator never repeated this mistake again, but it helped me to make my first step.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah, absolutely. I think everyone’s made that BCC mistake. I know I’ve made that mistake before in my past as well. But you pointed out something really important, which is what we talk about so much is, the diligence on the sponsor and their track record. And really your story around the emails is that you also sort out other investors, so that you’re really understanding. From their personal perspective, how did it go? How did they like working with them? What I would love to talk about with you too is, there’s the sponsor diligence. And you mentioned track record. Now with this sponsor and with the sponsors, let’s say that you work with today. If you still work with other sponsors, what about the track record specifically are you looking for? What are some of the key things that an investor should be thinking about as it relates to the sponsor?
Alina Trigub:
Sure. Excellent question. So first and foremost, I want to see the sponsor being transparent. And if someone tells me that I have an excellent track record, I never made any mistakes and everything has always gone perfect. Well, I’m going to question that because every single person makes them mistakes and granted some may more expensive mistakes and other less expensive, but every single person makes a mistake.
Alina Trigub:
So I want them to be transparent and tell me, and that mistake could be instead of the promise, 18% IRR the investors after the sale only receive 3% IRR. Yes, that’s a mistake and there are lessons learned to it. But the sponsor pull a transparent Yes, I have made that mistake. And ever since that happened, I have corrected that mistake with such and such steps. But I want them to share it and not me have to find out from someone else, whether it’s some of their investors or maybe it’s someone else that knows them real well.
Alina Trigub:
I want this to come directly from the sponsor. And I want them to tell me about their past mistakes. And because that reinforces the point that if there is something that will happen in the future, but because there are always things that happen in any line of business, they will be transparent about their mistakes and they will share. In addition to that, in terms of the track records, I want to see some consistency. So if they’re implementing certain strategy, let’s say it’s a value add strategy in a particular market. And they’ve been in this market for four to five years. Let’s say it’s Atlanta, Georgia. And now the sponsor decided, “Oh, I’m going to go into new market and I’m going to now invest it in Tampa, Florida.”
Alina Trigub:
Well, it’s not exactly around the corner. It’s a brand new market and it’s a distance away. Not to say that they cannot implement the strategy, they certainly can, but I want them to have a specific plan of action as to how they’re going to put it in place. Do they have the team numbers already identify? Or there’s still a process of identifying? So they have boots on the ground. And if this boots on the ground is someone reliable, who they completely trust and will be acting on their behalf and on behalf of the investors.
Alina Trigub:
So questions like that always come up. And this is something that I typically find out by having a conversation with a sponsor. And I actually have a list of suggested questions that I’m definitely more than happy to share with the origins of someone. Once I have a set of questions for both for the operators and then set of questions that operators want to ask investors. So all of those have come from years of experience and the years of accumulating feedback from multiple investors, sponsors, friends and so forth.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah that set of questions would be great if we can include it in the show notes, in the link. And yeah, it’s all really important. But I find also interesting with your background and we’ll get here in a minute is that, you go sponsor first. And one might be led to think you would go deal first because that’s where all the numbers are. Right? And that’s I think what a lot of people do believe in the beginning. And I know that I did too, where I thought, “Oh, here’s the deal. I got to understand the deal. Is it going to make me money? What are the risks of the deal?” But actually when you speak to experienced syndicators and investors, they all say… And I say the same thing nowadays, there’s tons of deals.
AdaPia d’Errico:
You have to be really, really sure about the sponsor. So, it’s very telling because even you go there first. And I would imagine you have a very detail oriented approach to the numbers of a deal, but it’s sponsor first, which is the same way we do it at Alpha. And very similar to when you were saying about, when a sponsor goes into a new market, because that localized experience and connections are so important, right? They can’t just flip into another market and succeed just because they want to go there, because everyone’s going there, because it’s a hot market. There’s so many things to know. And having boots on the ground there is also clearly fundamental.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Especially I would say, it’s a warning sign if they’re going to go, “I’m going to try this market, and then over here, and then over here.” instead of saying, “This is a new market, here’s why we’re targeting it. Here’s the data, here’s the person that I’ve set into this market so that we’re opening it to be our next big market.” And so that’s a different strategy. So I think that really speaks too strategically if a sponsor is just kind of flying around, looking for a good deal or actually really thinking through a market strategy,
Alina Trigub:
For sure. And I want to dig a little bit deeper if you don’t mind, in terms of understanding how the sponsor works, how to deal with them and understanding whether a sponsor and my interests are aligned and how I was thinking. When I was much younger, I came across Dale Carnegie’s book, How To Win Friends and Influence People. And I’ve ever since… I reread it probably at least three to four times. But when it first came to me, I was amazed, not so much by the content, but how rudimentary the principles are that they’re calming you head, compiled together in his book, but how much trauma with it is.
Alina Trigub:
It was so basically if you pay attention to the person you’re speaking with, if you really make it into a conversation where the conversation is all about this person, they will definitely want to continue speaking with you because they realize that you’re paying attention to them, and you really value them as an individual. I mean, there are so many other principles that Dale Carnegie talks about, but I use the same principles when I speak with investors nowadays, or even earlier when I was meeting and talking to sponsors.
Alina Trigub:
If I saw that they were paying attention to me, to my questions, my concerns, and explaining the risks of the investment or how the strategy is going to work and so forth, I knew that they’re paying attention to details. They are hearing my concerns and they treat me as an individual. They don’t look at me as just some number or it’s another 50K to my investment. That would be an immediate turn off point for me. So the human factor played a huge role for me personally.
Alina Trigub:
And you and I can talk long about this because some may call it intuition, some may call it gut feeling or something else. But having that connection, if you will, without the person seeing that they care about your definitely played a huge part in making the decision. Yes. I’m past the fact that this is the sponsor that will have my attention. I can move on to my next step and research the market. So that’s my thought process.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah. That’s yeah but then we call those or… I call those the intangibles, like you said, the feeling that you get from somebody and there’s intangibles that you can’t put the numbers on them. But how they communicate, how they answer your questions, are they short with you? Are they annoyed with you? Those are some intangibles there, and also in how they present their information. So even just in how they present it, it’s intangible/tangible. But what does their model look like? Does it make sense? Is it messy? And then we can dive into things like the assumptions. So, maybe we can go there now. You’ve gone through and you feel relatively comfortable with a sponsor and you say, “Okay, I’d like to see your deal.” What are some of the things that you focus on at that stage?
Alina Trigub:
So before I move into the deeper deal analysis, I typically take a look at the market fundamentals. I evaluate the infrastructure overall market. Does the immediate geographic facility have access to a large airport? Or will there be access to this property or projects if I want to fly in? Are there a lot of schools, universities, hospitals in the area? Is the area well-built in? How does the population growth look like? What does the job market look like? What are the major employers?
Alina Trigub:
If I see, for example, that the prevailing population in the area is working at the military base, I get concerned because military base people can come and go and I want to have some sort of stability. I want to have the employers that will be there for a very long time and also not going to be replaced by the next Amazon. So these should be factories, hospitals, educational institutions that are present and are continuing to bring more interest and employing more people and giving more jobs to the local population.
Alina Trigub:
So I want to see that upward trend and also the demand, depending whether it’s apartment complex or maybe soft storage or another asset class. I want to see the demand for this particular asset class in a specific geographic vicinity before making the decision. Yes, it looks promising. I can now move and review the deal. And so when evaluating the deal, as you mentioned AdaPia, I like to look at the numbers, but the numbers alone do not make a story. So the story is made when you look at the compilation of two things, when you look at the numbers and when you look at the qualitative analysis and you put them together.
Alina Trigub:
And what’s also important when looking at the numbers, don’t look at them in silence. For instance, someone may say, “Oh, the IRR for this project is 15%. So I’m going to go for it.” No, IRR alone tells you nothing, 15% IRR can mean so many different things. So always look at it in compilation with the cash-on-cash, average, annual return equity multiple and so forth. And then once you look at the numbers together, put the next layer on top of with which is the strategy that the operator is planning to implement.
Alina Trigub:
So again, let’s look at the value add partner complex example. So if the operator is saying that the rents are below the market in the area, and we’re going to go in and we’re going to reposition 70% of the unit, we’re going to put new kitchens, new bathrooms, we’re going to put everything new. But we don’t need stainless steel appliances because it’s just not going to support the market, but we can put probably black appliances and the middle of the market type of kitchen, because this is a solid B area. And that’s what it supports.
Alina Trigub:
Fine, they may also say that, we see that there is a trend for a lot of owners to come in with the parts, especially nowadays. Ever since the pandemic had started, there are statistics that say that a lot of people have started buying pads and if the trend is going upfront. And there is an area where you can potentially build a pet park load and build that Path pad, because that will on my track, more of owners with pads. And if you have a lot of studios or single family, Oh, I’m sorry, or one bedroom apartments, then obviously those folks that have pads and prefer to live in a smaller setting, but have access to the pet park or will be attracted to your apartment complex.
Alina Trigub:
So see what the fundamentals present, what the local market presents, and whether the strategy that the operator is planning to implement, make sense in a particular area. And if something doesn’t make sense, then always ask a question. Sometimes it’s just easier to hop on the call, then go back and forth on the email and have a conversation with a sponsor, ask them, how is the strategy going to be implemented? How do you see it sustaining, for go through the session? Or if something else will happen, how do you see that it’s been implemented in a timeframe that’s presented in your presentation, make a decision based on that.
Daniel Cocca:
I think it’d be helpful for our listeners to take a deeper dive into the specifics. Right? I think we can probably all agree that. You want to live or you want to buy a property in an area where you have the qualitative factors make sense and the demographics support your rents and whatnot. What are the actual figures and metrics? The kind of KPIs that you focus on as you kind of work through any given project.
Alina Trigub:
Yeah. Great question, Daniel. So I always look at the underwriting component as well. When they see their underwriting, I want to make sure that the underwriting is reflected over a specific geographic location, that it is reflective of what’s going on in the economy overall, and then in that area, in particular. If, let’s hypothetically say that the area dictates that the Macon scenario is 5%. Well, that may be… That’s definitely a great point, but I want to see the operator at the cushion and make the vacancy be higher and maybe start at a 15%, especially if they’re doing some heavy repositioning and then ratio would go down. Keeping in mind that while they’re repositioning units, there will be some turnaround time and they will definitely have higher vacancy number. But the same token when… Again, I’m looking at the bottom of that underwriting, not that they incompetent the expense part.
Alina Trigub:
I want to see the expenses below and gradually not go from 58% drastically to 41%. That would be a huge change. So I want them to be decreasing gradually. And I want to have the explanation behind. That maybe right now, utilities, for instance, of water and electric is paid by the landlord. And the operator is planning to bring RUBS system, Ratio Utility Billing System, where they gradually start putting the expenses, for instance, water bill back on the tenants.
Alina Trigub:
Again, I want to see that gradual progression doing it as the leases expires, which may entail that it will take anywhere from a year to potentially two years until all of the water bills are turned over to tenants. And that’s why that water bill expense cannot increase overnight. Not they will know one month, but it will gradually decrease from over a period from what, say one to two years when the leases are turned over. So I want to see the story behind the numbers, and I want that story to line up with the numbers that are presented in underwriting.
AdaPia d’Errico:
So that, that brings up something that I think is really important. This example, or some of the things that we look at one more underwriting, but aren’t necessarily expressed. Let’s say one, if we as Alpha or you as SAMO, you’re presenting a deal, there’s so much that’s behind what’s presented. And I think it’s a really great example of, the diligence factors that are behind the scenes that are really important for people to understand that this is the work that, we’re doing.
AdaPia d’Errico:
And that to your point about before, it’s not just, what’s the IRR and it’s not even just what’s the cash-on-cash, but there’s really so much work that goes into understanding the risk factors and the mitigating factors. I’ve probably said this a million times, but Anne Lin, our head of underwriting says, the devil’s in the details. And that was a great example of that.
Alina Trigub:
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s always important to dig into details and I always encourage my investors to understand the deal contents and ask any questions before they made the decision to invest. If something doesn’t feel right, if they’re not comfortable with the offering, if it doesn’t make sense for any reason, I always tell them, ask all your questions to make sure that you completely understand what you’re going for.
Alina Trigub:
Read, not only the offering memorandum, but also go over the private placement memorandum and ask anything that does or does not make sense to make sure that you’re fully understanding what you’re investing in because syndications in general tend to last longer. So plan to be invested for at least five to 10 years and make sure that you’re comfortable putting your money away for the time and potentially not being able to access it then during that time.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah, absolutely. That’s the same thing that we say to our investors as well. And I’m curious about your approach to… Like you said there’s so much similarity around, we tell people, ask your questions and be comfortable. And, we also tell people you might not be comfortable. There might be a really aggressive financing strategy by this particular sponsor that you can’t get comfortable with. We’re comfortable with it because of how we’ve looked at everything and you might not be in, that’s okay. So we also are tell people, if you’re not comfortable, there will be another deal that maybe you’re more comfortable with that has a return profile. And so it’s always just a matter of letting people know, “Hey, there will be another deal, no FOMO, there’s no missing out. It’ll be okay, you’ll get some good returns.”
AdaPia d’Errico:
How do you communicate that to your investors too? Or do you? Because sometimes you hear people that are more on the big, heavy sales side and they, “I want your money. I want your capital.” And it’s really, that’s not the point, right? You want to make sure this person for five to 10 years, isn’t so uncomfortable. Also, that they might be calling you every day because they’re uncomfortable. That’s not the kind of relationship, any of us are looking for either.
Alina Trigub:
Yeah, no, great, great point and great question. So for me, it all started because of tax, that’s in tax implications. And so even to this day because of my tax background, when I look at every project, my first question, what are the tax implications? Do I get any benefits from it? Is there a depreciation, is someone going to do cost segregation? And I’m going to get that accelerated depreciation upfront.
Alina Trigub:
And so while it’s important to me, I try to explain my point of view and but I always start with asking the investor, what is most important to you? Why are you doing what you’re doing? And some people are interested in growth opportunities because they’re somewhere in the middle of their career. They’re at the point where they’re putting money away because they want to have a comfortable retirement down the road.
Alina Trigub:
Other people may be at a different point. I had one investor who was a digital nomad and he said that, “While I’m traveling, I want to have access to income.” So for him, the immediate cash-on-cash return was a lot more important. So what happened in that case, we had a project where we created multiple asset classes and they were catered to different needs. Some concentrated, more on a higher cash-on-cash return. They will offer that cash-on-cash on the higher level.
Alina Trigub:
But last to know, a future appreciation where other asset class would concentrate on lower cash-on-cash return while offering that higher gratification that they aren’t. If you were to stay with us until that asset is disposed off, let’s say seven years down the road, then you would double or whatever your investment at the end of that term.
Alina Trigub:
So we always, always listened to what our investor needs are and where possible, We’re trying to accommodate it by creating these different classes. And by explaining to them, “Hey, there are opportunities to invest in this investment because it meets your goal.” But, “Hey, if it doesn’t it doesn’t meet your goals, if it’s not what you were looking for, or you’re not comfortable with the strategy, then just continue educating yourself and stay connected to see what the next opportunity that we’ll have and we’ll bring, and whether that will make a lot more sense for you. So that’s our approach.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah, absolutely. And one thing too, I want to let people know, you have a lot of videos on LinkedIn. You do a really good job of creating these videos that are kind of… They’re not cartoon, that’s not the right word, but there’s these educational videos. And so for anyone on LinkedIn to find Alina. I think it’s a really important strategy too, because it is very much like helping people understand potentially answering their questions ahead of time.
Alina Trigub:
Thank you AdaPia. Yeah. So while using cartoons, the goal of these videos is to really educate our investors on what syndications are about how to approach it and make it into something that’s easily accessible and easy to understand for anyone without any kind of finance or accounting degree. And so, no matter what you do in life, if you start educating yourself on syndications, I’m sure you will be able to fully understand that. And the goal of my readers is to support and reinforce that understanding of how syndications work.
AdaPia d’Errico:
I was saying. Thank you. And yeah, I agree. So I would love for people to go and see you on LinkedIn and watch these videos. And so just a couple of questions to wrap up, I guess, in the very simplest terms for you. I know we talked about this being about maybe taxation, then that’s how you started, but why in your opinion, and your experience are real estate syndications equity… Why are they good passive income investments for somebody that just wants in a nutshell?
Alina Trigub:
First reason. And I know you’re going to laugh, but the first reason is that the tax advantages. I just I can’t think of anything better than the tax advantage. And it’s very difficult to translate that into the numbers, but the advantage is so significant that… Let me just give you a specific example, let’s say someone is in a 32% tax bracket, and they’re invested in a syndication for five years that purchase this 100 doors, apartment complex. Well guess what, if this apartment complex will undergo cost segregation study after it’s purchased then number one, the depreciation component on it, that’s going to increase.
Alina Trigub:
And what essentially entails that even though you may be receiving dividends from this indication from the beginning, your tax return will show so-called paper losses, and these paper losses are going to be pretty significant at the beginning. And even though you may or may not be able to take advantage of them first, but guess what, they’re going to stay with you and they will carry forward. So by the time the investment is sold and hopefully sold at the gain, you have the gain, that’s also passive that you can take. And then that against these accumulated paper losses.
Alina Trigub:
So the amount that you will be taxed will be lower and not on the debt. The maximum percentage at which you’re going to be taxed is 20%. Well, if you’re in 32% tax bracket and you’re taxed at 20%, five years later, number one, from the beginning, you’re saving 12% because you’re at the higher tax bracket. Number two, you haven’t been paying taxes on it for the first two or three years because of that depreciation accumulating. So that benefit is much, much stronger and much, much higher than 12% overall, think of with this time value of money.
Alina Trigub:
Number two, when you’re investing in syndications, when people talk about passive and sometimes compare it to Turn-key investment, syndication is really passive because all that you’re required to do is you’re required to review the offering and make a decision. Yes, I will invest in or no, I will not invest in. And that’s it, your work is done. Well, if you talk in Turn-key, when you’re buying a single family house as a Turn-key, yes, someone else had repositioned that, then someone else had placed tenants and gave you a property management to manage it.
Alina Trigub:
But guess what, if something happens, if your single family house, let’s say is located in Houston, and we can go back to last week when we had the snow storm in Houston, guess what, the pipes may burst, and you will get that call at two o’clock in the morning because it’s your house and your property manager wants to know, do you really want to invest that significant amount of money and buy copper pipes, plastic pipes, or whatever else, but it’s your house. You’re the owner. You have to make the decisions when it comes to a much larger purchase. So that’s not completely passive to me.
Alina Trigub:
And that’s why I like syndications for someone who is busy with their career, with their personal life hobbies, whatever it is. But just don’t want to be bothered with tenants and toilets. I think syndication is one of the best ways to have that best of investment. And the point number three, and it’s certainly not the last one they can go on and on. But the point number three is, if you take a typical W-2 employee or a business owner, or… Let’s start with W-2 employee, what they have is they probably have 401K. They may have had IRA along the line and guess where those accounts are invested, well most likely it’s back to the good old Wall Street. It’s probably stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds.
Alina Trigub:
Where’s the diversification? If we get back to the almost a year ago, stock market crash that when the market went down by, I don’t remember how much 20, 30%, that may happen again. And on top of it, no one can ever tell you when that next crash is going to happen. Well, that’s where real estate comes in. It gives you a perfect way to hedge against the volatility, by diversifying into something that’s completely independent of Wall Street and has its own implications, of course. But it has completely different dynamics and it will help you to diversify and have that hedge against the stock market volatility. And those are the top three reasons why I like real estate syndications investment in general.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Thank you. So comprehensive. And it’s great because you started with taxes and actually our episode before this, was with a CPA who specializes in real estate. And so he went through some of the details, having the description the way you have, it is actually really nice. It’s very complimentary to how he described it as well. So thank you so much for that. And last question is a question we ask all of our guests and it’s what does wealth mean to you?
Alina Trigub:
It’s to be able to leave a legacy after myself. But not in actual physical kind of way, more in a way of being able to remember, not for who I am but for the things that I’ve done, for ways I’ve helped other people and touched other people lives, and impacted them and help them in a way that will continue putting smile on their faces. And we’ll continue them to keep coming back to me and thanking for the work that I do and gratification for just the mere reason that we know each other and that we exist in this world. So to me, that’s the biggest way to build wealth and leave a legacy after myself.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Oh, that’s beautiful. I love that so much. Well, Alina, thank you so very, very much for joining us today and sharing your expertise and your knowledge, and there’s so much information in here that we’ll want to relisten to this. And really, thank you for also the very specific examples and just for everything that you do. It’s such a pleasure to have you as part of our network and we’ll include links in the show notes so that people can find you and see these videos. I know I’ve been enjoying a lot on LinkedIn as well. And so again, thank you very, very much. You and I will be talking soon anyways. So thank you!
Alina Trigub:
Thank you for having me.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Thanks for tuning into real wealth, real health. We hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s episode and found it both informative and insightful. We welcome all your questions and your feedback about today’s episode. And especially we welcome your questions about specific topics that you would like us to cover. So shoot us an email @[email protected]. And if you have a moment, we really appreciate ratings and reviews, as it helps us grow our online community and our interactions with you.
AdaPia d’Errico:
And we’ll also be linking to a number of relevant articles on topics that we might’ve touched on during our conversations. Some of them are broad. Some of them are technical, but we’re always aiming to provide information that helps you better understand the mechanics of building this healthy financial foundation. Especially if you’re looking to do this with real estate.
Speaker 5:
This podcast is a part of the C-Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit C-suiteradio.com.
