The CRE Connection · Samy Soussan

In our latest episode, we take a fascinating journey with Ola Dantis, who made a courageous leap from a corporate analyst to a successful real estate entrepreneur. Ola shares his story, the highs and lows of navigating the world of entrepreneurship, and the invaluable role mentorship played in his journey.

From Nigeria and England to the US, from corporate comfort to the dynamic world of commercial real estate, Ola's journey is a testament to the power of strategic partnerships, finding the right mentor, and the pursuit of freedom in entrepreneurship.

Join us as we delve into the nitty-gritty of deal sourcing, cash flow management, attracting equity investors, and much more. More importantly, we discuss wealth – it's not just about the numbers, but the freedom to live life on your terms.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or an established investor, this episode is packed with insights, stories, and success secrets that will inspire you and equip you with valuable lessons.

▶️ If you're interested in learning more about Ola, check out the following links:
▶ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dwellynn/
▶ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oladantis/
▶ Website: https://www.dwellynn.com/
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▶️ Check out my Website: https://creconnection.transistor.fm/
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Creators & Guests

Host
Samy Soussan
Connector in Chief and Founder of The CRE Connection Podcast | Madison Title, Business Development
Guest
Ola Dantis
Ola Dantis BSc MSc, the Founder/CEO at Dwellynn.com, a multifamily investment syndication firm, has successfully closed deals of over 25 million dollars by working closely with, Brokers, Sellers, and with other Apartment Syndicators across the country. Ola, an entrepreneur at heart, brings his experience in owning and managing cash-flowing multifamily property in his personal real estate portfolio to larger multifamily investing. This foundational experience derived from the strategic acquisition, renovation, and repositioning has been instrumental in the apartment syndication space, resulting in a competitive edge in value add and equity creation. In addition, Ola draws from his leadership and analytic skills as a manager for a Fortune 6 company. Ola hosts a weekly popular podcast called The Dwellynn Show and interviews real estate investors and entrepreneurs across the U.S. Ola has a Bachelors of Science (BMedSc) in Biomedical Science from the University of Birmingham Medical School and a Masters of Science (MSc) in Strategic Marketing and Consulting from University of Birmingham Business school. Ola has been involved in over 700 units but is currently a General Partner on 244 units across Texas.

What is The CRE Connection · Samy Soussan?

Welcome to the Commercial Real Estate Connection Podcast: Building Relationships for Commercial Success', the place where we connect with the brightest minds in commercial real estate, uncovering their secrets, strategies, and captivating stories.

We are dedicated to helping beginners learn from experts in the commercial real estate industry. Join us as each episode, we sit down with successful investors, brokers, developers, and other key players in the commercial real estate world to discuss their experiences, strategies, and secrets to success. Our goal is to provide you with valuable insights and perspectives to help you navigate the complex world of commercial real estate and build strong relationships that lead to commercial success.

So, whether you're just starting out or looking to take your career to the next level, join us as we connect you to the industry and share expert insights for aspiring professionals.

00:00 - Samy (Host)
Welcome to the Commercial Real Estate Connection podcast, the place where we connect with the brightest minds in commercial real estate, uncovering their secrets, strategies and captivating stories. I'm your host, sami Suzan, here to serve as your guide and connector-in-chief on this exciting journey. Together, we'll dive deep into the world of commercial real estate, exploring the ins and outs of this dynamic industry. Our goal is to discover the true power of meaningful connections along the way. So get ready to plug in, engage and elevate your commercial real estate journey. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Commercial Real Estate Connection podcast. We have with us today Mr Ola Dantes. Ola, really, really excited to have you with us today. I'm really excited to learn more about your personal commercial real estate journey. So welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Alright, ola, so maybe you could introduce yourself where you kind of grew up, your little brother, your background and how you got into commercial real estate.

00:55 - Ola (Host)
Yeah, definitely. I shared the story the same exact way. I remember listening to podcasts myself when I was studying. Now and you hear these stories and you can never make that connection to how they got started to where they're at today. You know, some people have like $2 billion in assets and you're like I can connect to that. So I really like to stop on the beginning.

01:17
So you know, my wife and I moved to the US. I want to say 10 years ago now, almost 10 years ago. We came from England and, you know, shortly thereafter I got a day job. My wife got a, you know, got a day job. We're kind of living the American dream. She was originally from Nigeria, west Africa, born in West Africa, you know, went to England when I was 16. So spent quite a bit of time there, studied in the UK, first degree and then a master's degree, and then my wife kind of was telling me hey, do you want to move to the US? Because she's half American, filipino and she also wanted to come to the US. So this was kind of when she finished studies in the UK and she basically was, she came to the US for a bit to work at Disneyland and I remember her inviting me over for the very first time, like, hey, you know you want to come to Orlando, just come, you know, come and see the US.

02:16
And I'm a, I'm a, I'm a Windows C guy, sure. And I remember, just before we touched down in Orlando and I was just seeing, like you know, just the manicure, you know grass and the palm trees, you know, like just about to touch on in Florida, and I'm being very prescriptive here because I feel, like a lot of us you know, myself now included that we live in this beautiful country. Sometimes we don't appreciate that anymore, right, but I remember coming on the plane and I was like, oh my goodness, like this place is beautiful, like nobody told me about this Orlando place, like this.

02:53 - Samy (Host)
Florida place.

02:55 - Ola (Host)
So touched down. Of course my wife was working in Disney at the time in kind of doing internship and I was like oh my God, like yeah, I would, I would love to move you at some point, you know, if you want us to do it. So that was kind of my first experience with the US, loved it, you know it's a great intro.

03:10
it's a great intro into into US is going to Disneyland 100%, of course, when we finally moved to the US, we settled in Baltimore, but that's different. But I mean that that first intro for me, just when you're like, wow, this is, this is so far forward. We moved, like I said, you know, three years later I moved to the United States, kind of got plugged into the system and then the whole nine to five go to work. Come on, do it again. Go to work. Traffic come on. You know, now, in the best country on the planet, as I like to tell everybody that wants to listen, I mean I've lived on three continents, you know, started businesses on two. So when I say this is the best one out of the ones that I've been on, I mean take it with a grin of salt, of course, but meditate on that as well.

03:56 - Samy (Host)
What were the other other two continents that you lived on?

03:59 - Ola (Host)
Africa. Yeah, I forgot, I got it. I lived in the UK and I was born in Nigeria. Left Nigeria when I was 16. You know, so, just kind of being in America, being in the system, it was fantastic. Ironically, we were living in an apartment building. I didn't know I was going to end up buying those buildings. Another same one.

04:16
It was great, Luxury apartment, didn't care about you know, trash, taxes, timeites. I just kind of lived my life. But I knew there was something missing but I couldn't put my finger in it Like, yeah, I was in the best country on the planet going to work. You know my wife and I doing great, you know having enough money to do whatever we want. What were you?

04:38 - Samy (Host)
doing prior? What kind of work were you doing?

04:41 - Ola (Host)
I was a senior business analyst working for Fortune 6 company at the time. But you know IT basically and you know now I'm a full-time entrepreneur. I want to put that out there. But that was really helpful, actually just kind of understand the system, considering we just moved here. So it was a good experience, but that something was missing. Anyway, I got a call from a friend of mine in the UK and he said hey, Ola, I've just started a business in the UK. I know you're great, you know businesses, you know building businesses and processes and structures. Could you meet me in Dubai and you can kind of help me with my business? I've got to meet some investors there. Could you fly out from the US?

05:22
I was living in Maryland at the time in this success timeline for folks still following. So obviously I did what every wise man does trade about it. And of course I asked my wife like, hey, you know, my friend told me to come to Dubai. I mean this was ages before the pandemic, before Zoom, before you know all this technology. But you know I was on the plane, right. I mean I had that void of like is this all I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life Just traffic work. I mean there's got to be something else. But I didn't know what that stuff was, right. So I got to Dubai. My friend was telling me not to you know anyone surprised listening to this it was real estate. That's what he was doing in the UK and that was the business he wanted me to help him restructure right and kind of build his org charts. You know things like that. So I remember being in the hotel room. Nothing fancy like the Instagram live we are showing these days. I don't even have a three-star hotel or whatever, but we just kind of, you know, master mining on my friends business, right. I mean then I didn't know what that term meant. Now I do, and you know, at the end of it kind of helped him out.

06:22
And then on my way back on the plane I just kind of had that realization like hey, I probably could do this in the United States. I mean, you know, the United States has like 300 million people, the UK is like 60 million. I was like probably couldn't do the same thing in the US. And, you know, got back to the US about four or five months later, bought my first building. Now there's a big jump in there. It's actually really funny, right? I'm all over the place, but I'll connect everything.

06:48
We just set up a construction company in November of last year and what I'm learning as a business person and as an entrepreneur is you keep doing something right, Consistently, for a separate of time. Something will come out on the other side, right, you keep throwing seeds constantly. I don't care what you do. You're a dancer, you're a musician, it just doesn't matter. You're a title company, right, you keep throwing out seeds. Something is going to come out on the other side. It might be an apple, it might be a hawk tree, a big one, it might be, you know, tomatoes, it doesn't matter. But I understood that right? So, going back to that four month period of having that realization, on the plane back to the US from Dubai to buy my first building, I just went to work, right, I was throwing out a lot of seeds in the form of.

07:29
You know, came back, you know, went to my first best friend pay attention, google, right? You know, like the young people ask questions these days like how do I get started? How do I? No, no, no, it's like basic stuff. Like our parents did not have Google. Like let that marry lane for like a second. Like they did not have I message, they had to, like, literally write letters. My parents, right, like they were born in the 50s, right, so the fact that you have I message, you have Google and God forbid you have chat GPT right now, right, anyway, going back to that, so Google everything about real estate, didn't know nothing about real estate. And then I found my second best friend again, pay attention, amazon.

08:11
Again, generations past, did not have a place to center repository to gather all this knowledge, right, sure, went to Amazon, bought rich data for that, right, think and grow rich. Bought all these books, like, about real estate, like I didn't know anything about this, the subject matter, but I kind of dove into it, got books signed off, a bigger pockets, right, so did all this activities, right. And then, four months later, five months later, we bought our first duplex in Baltimore, maryland, in a class A area close to Jada Pinsastu and you know, don't forget, these are just, you know, two kids from the UK, my wife and I. We don't know anything. Time, you know nothing, right, okay, like we don't know what we're doing, right, but we brought that duplex and we moved into the bottom floor which is called house hacking. That's the new term.

09:04
By the time, he was not called house hacking, believe it or not, and the time was like six, seven years ago, so not very long ago, but now it's all over the place, right, we moved down and we had this two tenants upstairs and again had an epiphany. My wife and I came back from work one day, you know, and we just kind of, you know, doing what couples do, right, cooking. We're kind of talking about life and we're like, oh my goodness, like you know, we got our first rent check. I can never, I can never forget this day and I was like, oh my goodness, like these people paid us money to stay in our home. That's awesome.

09:40
Yeah, like just having that epiphany. I was like, so if we do this like five more times, we probably won't need a job. Like it was that, like it was such a strong feeling. I'm like, oh my goodness, this is all we're going to do for the rest of our lives. Like, right, that day we made that decision and, of course, you would assume human beings are logical, sensible, methodical in the rationale and thinking and can use agency to the best of their abilities. That's not what I did, sammy. That's not what I did. I would love to tell you guys exactly what I did. No, you know, found this brilliant strategy of house hacking. We should have just done like four or five more of these things, like in the next. You know, use the same philosophy.

10:25 - Samy (Host)
Rinse and repeat Sure.

10:26 - Ola (Host)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did, I did, I did. I totally went like a whole 90 degree term went into flipping houses. Yeah, I met a really good friend of mine and he's like, oh, let's go flip some houses down the street, we'll make $50,000. I was like $50,000 sounds a lot better than this rent check that is, tenants upstairs that give us every month. So when to do that for like two years and I'll tell folks the shiny object syndrome. You really need to be aware of it. You need to be acutely aware of your temperament as a person, as a human being, I mean. These are conversations I don't, I rarely hear about in the world of business and even in real estate investing. You need to know where you are Right. What does that mean? Like I was doing great. I was able to inform on five up building, renovate it, move into a, started getting cash flow, essentially, and I was like I should do more of this. But then I didn't and I went something totally different and I realized I found myself going to the project I had like two flip projects at the time going there every day covered in dust, because I was setting the contractors out to do their job, because I wanted it to be perfect, right, and I drove them crazy, right, and I hated it because I didn't like flipping, because you couldn't control all the processes, you couldn't do what the contractors did, you, you know, I had to deal with the city and they will fail you so many times on inspection. I just did not like it at all. Now, I didn't. I wasn't a total moron.

11:55
Before I went into flipping I actually met, I listened to a podcast, just like this, and a guy came on talking about buying apartment buildings. So actually, after you know, I remember, like it was yesterday, right, the guy you know, at the end they say, hey, how come people find out about you? Right, and the guy was like, oh, this was again six, seven years ago. The guy was like, oh, I give my number, nobody's going to call me. Right, you know, this guy had the time had like a hundred million dollars of assets on the management. We, you know, we'll come back to that number later. People always think you know something huge, anyway. So the guy said nobody's going to call me. Well, I am Mr Nobody.

12:31 - Samy (Host)
That's great.

12:32 - Ola (Host)
So I called him and say hey, and you know the guy was like hey, what is this? I'm like, well, I'm Mr Nobody. He said nobody's going to call you, that's me. And I told him, whatever it is that you charge to mental people, I cannot afford it. All right, let's just put that right out there. But guess what? I would pay any payment plan you agree to. Now I'm making this humorous and I'm keeping you know I only as engaged here with the stories.

12:58
But pay attention, right, pay attention for those that are listening. Because you're going to say, hey, I don't want to pay a mentor. Oh, you know it's going to be cause going to cost a lot of money. Oh, but I'm giving you answers. First, you need a mentor, that's.

13:11
I have so many mentors right now, the ones I pay, the ones I can never afford to pay back, the ones, the ones I don't pay. You know we all need a mentor. Like, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. I know that's not what they tell you on Instagram. It's just not for everyone, and I say that with love in my heart. I have a great sister. She's not an entrepreneur, she's a great 9 to 5er, amazing, right. So people have to understand that and what mentors do is they can help you navigate the journey of life, right? Doesn't that you don't have to be an entrepreneur. You still need a mentor, Right? We all need mentors, right? So, anyway, the mentor was a big help for me. He agreed to my payment plan so I did join, you know, an apartment investing cohort at the time. You know some of some of the some of you know. Some of those guys are really really big names. I'm not going to name drop for some of the guys that we know today by an apartment.

14:04 - Samy (Host)
You can name drop, it's okay, we'll take it.

14:08 - Ola (Host)
Some of those guys are part of that, you know. You know cohort and they're doing pretty well so but even though I was with that cohort, I actually not left but stopped to go play. Like I mean, of course, right now we all know that's like silly. I should have just kind of continued. Obviously it takes forever. It takes forever, like anything. What they're doing and doing well takes six ages, like centuries almost. Like if you was like right, so I like I don't want to do this apartment thing, it's so long, let me just go make a 50. I did not. I did not do the 50,000 down the street. It did not happen that way I'm flipping. I still ended up coming back, but I lost two years of my life. Now I learned a bunch about myself. So if anybody comes to me and said I want to flip whatever, I don't do flipping right, I only buy cash flowing assets from day one I would do construction projects, because now we have a construction company, a big construction project, because we have competencies and the core competencies do such projects.

15:07 - Samy (Host)
You have the infrastructure to take it, love it.

15:10 - Ola (Host)
Exactly so by the time I came back to my cohort, all the guys I started with were buying their first hundred unit deals, right? This is another like kicker, right, god you know. But I didn't let that stop me again for folks listening, listening carefully, right, what I did was I partner up, right? So if you're in a place in life right now Maybe you're in your 40s, in your 50s or whatever you're thinking, man, it's too late, it's not partner up, right, partner up. Don't try to start, you know, from scratch, cuz I mean it takes forever, like I said, it feels like centuries. Right, partner up. Find somebody you like very important. You can talk about partnerships, very, very important. Find someone you like and partner up.

15:50
So I did that and I got into my first 160 unit deal in Houston, texas. So don't forget, if you're still following the geographical, you know Timelines, I'm still in Maryland, was able to partner up with some guys that were buying in Houston. So because I was part of that deal, I had to fly into Houston Texas again for the very first time and I remember coming to Houston thinking, oh, my goodness, this place is amazing. So I got back to Maryland, told my wife to quit her job at the bank down the street. We're moving to Texas. Now your audience might go. This guy is insane, maybe, but what I would tell you is this and I love Jim Rohn. I don't know if you've heard of Jim Rohn, anybody that you have not. Go go.

16:30
Yeah yeah, it's, it has this classic night. You're not a tree. You are not a tree. You can move, you can go, you can do whatever you. You know you can move right. So at that time for us, I'd already done the flipping, didn't like it. I was trying to find an apartment building in Maryland, couldn't find it. And then, yeah, I was came to Texas for the first time. There's like six lanes everywhere, you know big. I'm like what am I doing over there? Like I just told my wife, quit that job, please, up on the. You know, jumped on the train. We came here, like in a Saturday. We looked at like 20 houses, put an offer on one, you know, we had a little baby at the time, by the way, we'll give it me know my wife and giving birth to our first child at the time, tim Lola. Wow, we dragged out, you know. So people are there, yeah, but you're young. No, no, no, no, no. We had a kid right next to us. We tried.

17:20 - Samy (Host)
It's definitely a big, big investment, that's 100%.

17:23 - Ola (Host)
My wife's was pregnant as well. Right, wow, and we moved to Texas. So this was Jan of 2020, now in the timeline. You know, at this time, you know we have a duplex, we built another house, like you know as well, so we had tenants in there. You know we had a good portfolio in Baltimore, maryland, which we still own. So today, why we like know we're gonna, we're bullish on Texas, we're gonna go hard. I'm telling this to folks that live in California or folks that live in New York City and saying I can't do this anymore. You can, you can move. That's the beauty of this great country, right? Anyway, move to Texas, january 2020, I don't if anybody remembers what happened in that year. Two months later, tom Ang's got COVID World shut down. So this is us coming with this full energy to buy more apartment buildings in Texas. God, yeah, two months later, the whole world shut down and my wife was like this is gonna be fun. I was like buckle up, baby.

18:27 - Samy (Host)
And there was no way to anticipate that. So you're really. You guys are coming down full of energy, ready to go take on the world, and all of a sudden, boom, you just get hit with this huge curveball.

18:38 - Ola (Host)
Exactly, and this is important, right. This goes back to, you know, what I said in the beginning. Like you know, entrepreneurship is, you know, one, you have to be an optimist. I mean, if you're an accountant or maybe an attorney, maybe you could be pessimist, an entrepreneur, you just have to be a kind of half like half full kind of guy or girl. Like you can't is because the nature of business is already tough, right, that's that statistics, like most businesses fail in their first year, is that? It's that philosophy? It's true, because it's a lot right. But if you're, if you can go past that and you understand some fundamental principles, it's the best thing you can ever do. Right, he's the best thing you can ever do. You just have to get past those things.

19:22
Anyway, pandemic here, as we all know, 2020 was kind of a wash right, but for me personally, I still went to, you know, the same office that you guys are seeing on this video. I came here every single day to work, right? I mean, like that's just what you do, right? I always make this joke to my wife, you know. They were like the divorce rates, you know, wined up in the pandemic. I was like, oh well, that's, that was the reason I left my house. You walked out for us, you know, walked every day, walked every day again for those listening and still listening and paying attention. I kept on working. I didn't see in the house, I'm watching Netflix. Oh, I mean, it was nice to do that. I'm sure it's nice to, but I still work every single day. I'm saying this for a reason, because the next year we bought about 200 units, wow. So, like I knew this pandemic, you know, I started medical science on my first degree. I knew it was going to pass. But you don't even need a medical scientist to tell you that the pandemic would pass, like these two shall pass right. So, as an entrepreneur, you need to understand that, just like right now, with all the inflationary, you know, infect on the economy, with how things are just kind of like slow right now, it's also going to pass right. So I knew that from a philosophical perspective, that this is going to pass. So I kept on working right. And then, when 2021 kind of came around, we already knew what covid was. People had already get vaccinated.

20:48
We bought our first deal in Houston in February, took that down pretty quickly. Was an off-market deal, close that down, closed. You know our Madison title as usual right here we go. Yeah, you know little plug right there. Love those guys over there right closed on that deal. And then a few months later, what another deal. Right, those two dudes took us to 200 units, right, and I I want to be very specific for those listening and those that understand what I found investing. I'm not just saying I just bought a deal. I was a GP on those deals, right, you know, I was one of three GPS on those deals. So I want to be very clear on that and I Structured everything, you structure the entire.

21:27
Correct, absolutely, of course. You know I gotta I gotta mention this, since this is public is I have two other partners. They are amazing, just amazing, great, great, great partners. So that helps quite a bit. You know, I always say if you can find partners just like in a marriage, right you just, you can't do this by yourself. You should not do this by yourself, you know. So that helps quite a bit.

21:51 - Samy (Host)
I imagine you guys, you guys each compliment each other 100%, 100%.

21:56 - Ola (Host)
I mean just I use this very like classic example. Right, like, if you want to do something really, really well, you need it takes a village. Right, the iPhone isn't designed by one guy. Right? Like, yeah, you know that, that's why it's a great product. Right? Like, if you want to build something, don't anybody that has that kind of like I Can't do it by myself mentality, you're not gonna give me.

22:18
You do things like house down the street Nobody cares about I mean no offense Like talking about, you know, buying a large asset with, like, you know, 100 Families, or you know 150 units with 150 families in there. It's not something you do by yourself and you shouldn't do by yourself if you want to live long anyways. Right, it's a lot of work. So you, you always need that team, right? You know and I always tell this to a lot of people like, just forget that mines and it's not you as a person I'm sure we all nice people with that brain telling you, oh, you don't need nobody you can devise up. No, you can't, especially if you're trying to put down 5.2 million dollars on a deal as a down payment. Unless you're Saudi Prince, maybe you can do that by yourself, but usually you need to syndicate, pull funds together. You know, you know it's close to deal.

23:05 - Samy (Host)
There's a lot of a lot of collaboration, a lot of synergy that's required. It's not just it certainly can be done by one person, but I love, I love that you're sharing that. Yeah, I mean continue, this is great, yeah.

23:16 - Ola (Host)
Yeah, definitely. So you know, did that right. So this kind of took us all to the, you know, to the end of 2021, 2022 as well. Still, kind of. You know, folks recovering from the pandemic business is trying to, you know I'm get back to where they were pre pandemic levels. We put another deal right, again close with you guys in Madison. Right, we bought, you know, this deal smaller deal, 44 units year in Houston, west Columbia, texas, working on that deal every single day, right, you know.

23:43
So now we have a pretty big portfolio. We've got health from, you know, third party property management companies. We've got a good, good enough, steam year at dwelling, you know, so I can be on calls like this. So, again, it takes a village and that's kind of you know what we do every day making sure that we're, you know, investing always.

24:01
Like tell you know some of the people I mentor like, hey, you know, never forget it's in the name, right, if you're an investor, you invest, right, never forget that. You know People, some, you know people buy assets and they just refuse to, you know, infuse or deploy capital in that asset. Like that's not what we want to do. I mean, this app was lives to. You know, go to these places and call that home. We might call it an asset, but that's someone's home. So just really remembering that and and continue to do that every day, we spend so much money on our properties like sometimes even like over spend, but that's what we want to be known for and that's just our philosophy and that's what we're going to continue to do at dwelling.

24:43 - Samy (Host)
I love it. Oh, first of all, that was just an incredible story because I feel like you've really taken it from your entire journey, you know, from beginning, and it also seems that I guess people in general Typically think that the way that that that real estate investors you begin is, you know, they have, they have five to ten, twenty years of experience and real estate and then they just start investing. And it seems like it was definitely a journey, but there was also kind of like a aha moment, you know, that set you on this path, you know. I mean you seem to have gathered all your previous experiences and use that, that one moment, to kind of seize the opportunity and make the leap. So it takes a lot of guts, you know, to really to get out there. Sure, maybe a little bit about what are some of the challenges that you face as a, as a multi-family Syndicator investor, what are some of the challenges that you're facing on a daily basis and how do you overcome those challenges.

25:39 - Ola (Host)
Yeah, no, that's a great question. So, going back to what I mentioned in the beginning about most businesses fail right, and One of the major reasons businesses fail is cash flow right cash flow, and that could be tied back all the way to just money Capital right in our business right now, one thing we would like to be better at is being able to attract equity right. We don't have any issues with debt, we can get there to you all day long, right, but actually getting equity investors to help fund, kind of, you know, the down payment, like I mentioned, like you know the five million dollars you know they need to bring down. You know we bought a hundred and seventy eight units, right I mentioned. So you need a substantial amount of money to, you know, to take that deal to close. So you need to get a lot of people involved, and that that's why we we syndicate funds. So that that's one, you know, definite challenge that we are constantly walking in getting better.

26:37
One way that we're trying to kind of mitigate that is to reach out to different equity groups. Equity groups Family offices have some pension funds now those guys are no joke, as they're definitely no fools. So those guys require, you know a certain level of excellence You're reporting require in the reporting requirements. You know what class you know they want to make sure that the you know the sponsor, me, the general partner knows exactly what they're doing. So it's a different ballgame as opposed to what we consider.

27:10
The retail investors, right, your family and friends, uncles, you know things like that giving you a hundred thousand, twenty thousand, you know, half a million dollars, you know. So that's that's one thing that we're, you know, walking really diligently on to try to, you know, overcome, but of course, that's something will always keep that. The other challenge is just deal sourcing, like finding the deal, like I remember I had a meeting with someone and I was showing them kind of our deal sourcing pipeline. I think we had. We've kind of looked at, you know, deals over like three billion, you know, since you know they're getting up 2020. So that's a lot of deals. And you know we've bought like three. Well, that's a lot of that's a star.

27:50
Yeah, you know that's a lot of frogs. You got a kiss right before you find the prince, as they say. So you know many people don't understand that. But you got to look at a lot of deals and look at what does that mean for anybody. Was a? You know, just a beginner is like you have to like, basically take numbers from an OM, which is an offering memorandum, put those numbers into a spreadsheet. That process take between 30 to you know, three hours. It really depends on how deep you want to go in that underwriting of that asset, of that deal. So imagine doing that, you know hundreds of times, right yeah.

28:24
I mean just a lot, of, a lot of times I got to do one after this call. So you know that that sheer effort and determination, consistency, is needed to be able to close those three deals right, because you could have stopped at the hundred million mark, like I don't want to do this anymore. Well, you know, is that two billion or three billion I think it was last time and he's probably gonna get to ten billion and it's gonna keep growing. But we keep buying deals. So deal sourcing is challenge number two. Challenge number three is just commercial real estate. Like there are people out there that want to take your money and I have to just be like honest, as I get, as I'm getting older, I don't want to be the guy that is just like you know, like, oh my god, you can do it. Like I mean, of course I'm that guy, naturally, but I have to force myself to tell people the other side right, and in this game people will take your money. So you gotta be careful.

29:16
Balancing optimism with realism is the way we could put it and I, you know, I can tell you guys that, like you know, you can, you know like sometimes when you want to buy a deal, you have to put something called an EMD, which is an earnest money, down, and sometimes that one is non refundable, right? So if you're trying to buy a 15 million dollar deal, sometimes, if it's a seller's market, they would require you to put down a hot Non-refundable and it's non-refundable. And we had a deal on the contract for about $50 million with you guys, with Madison.

29:49 - Samy (Host)
Well, get her back. Ola, we're going to get her back yeah, I don't know.

29:53 - Ola (Host)
So people need to understand that as well, and it's not to discourage anyone. Well, I love what you use, just realism, and people need to know that. But then how do you overcome that? It's just like knowing what you need to do, knowing what to do, and one way is by doing something called an early access agreement, which means you can go and look at a particular asset before you actually put any money down. They can give you like 10 days, 15 days, whatever it is, so that way you don't have any capital at risk.

30:21
So at the end of the day, you know, just in this business, you still have something to risk. I mean, no risk, no reward. It's just like same thing with the gym, right? You don't put in those work like. So people have to be aware of that and I have to be honest, I don't want to paint a rosy picture. I mean, it's one of the best businesses you can do real estate. I don't care what anybody tells you. Actually, it's on the list of businesses that rarely fails, you know, because people need a place to stay right.

30:49 - Samy (Host)
Sure.

30:50 - Ola (Host)
But, in the same vein, you have to be aware that people are out there to take your money, unfortunately, and they will take that money. So you have to protect that by knowing certain things, having different tools that you can use financial instruments, mentors, mentors right, you know there's that guy that lost a lot of money in Houston recently, two hundred and twenty nine. You know that guy did not buy a financial instrument called a Raycat. So those like they're very nuanced things, but you want to make sure that you understand what those concepts are. You understand what those things are and you have a really strong philosophy of doing the right thing.

31:28 - Samy (Host)
So not really just diving in ahead of first, but just making more educated decisions with the right resources. I like that. So, ola, I just want to rewind with you a little bit. For those who are not as familiar with the process of putting together a deal, a syndication, however we want to frame it, can you kind of like walk us through? What are the steps to you know putting together a deal? What do you start? You know all the way from sourcing a deal to sourcing capital. What are some steps? You don't have to give away all your secrets, but what's a typical starting point to get a person to actually begin their first deal.

32:05 - Ola (Host)
That's a loaded question. It's a loaded question.

32:07 - Samy (Host)
You don't have to answer the whole thing, but maybe some basic steps you know that would help.

32:12 - Ola (Host)
No, I'd love to answer the whole thing actually. Yeah, I hope we have some time up, but I'll be quick as well. So let's take I don't want to use a big number, you know, let's use a million dollars. So you led to, you want to buy I don't know, 20 units for a million dollars. Now the first thing is you got to find that deal. You got to find that 20 units deal somewhere in America, right? So usually what is what I tell people? You have a.

32:36
You have two ways to find the deal. Well, a few others, but let's just say two main categories. One is through the gatekeepers they're called brokers. Two is you go direct into the seller. Right, and those two categories, two different approaches, right, and I'll be very like laser. I'll kind of hit the things really quickly. So if anybody's taking notes, this is when you take notes Brokers, coffee, lunches, steak, dinners that's broker.

33:00
That's how you get a deal from brokers. Direct to seller letters calling, calling, letters, calling that's how you get a deal. There's really no, you can go donk on that door if you're really, really crazy, and that's okay. You'd be surprised at how nice they would be and welcoming. They might even invite you in. So that's how you get the deal right Direct to seller. Then you get the deal.

33:22
Then you realize, oh my goodness, this deal is a million dollars. The bank is telling me I need to put down $200,000. My other bank is telling me that in my account I don't have $200,000. So then you got to go to your rich uncle that you think is rich, but you only find out that he just has a big fancy house and a big fancy guy spends all his money on the Kami house and he doesn't have anyone. So you run to your uncle just to talk to your other uncle that you think is poor, to tell him about how your rich uncle didn't give you the $200,000, to find out that your quote, unquote poor uncle that doesn't have a nice fancy house is the one that would give you the $200,000 from his 401K.

34:01
What I'm trying to make out is do not undice the maids, the power of the family, of friends. Don't think like, oh, this person has money, this person doesn't. Right, that's a flaw. Right, that's a bias. Right, there's different biases recency bias I can go on and on. Right, so make sure that you just tell everybody what you're doing and you never know who's going to give you money.

34:19
But you're going to need that money to actually take to close, to, like Madison title, to actually close on the deal and, to you know, get the deal right Now. Typically that $200,000, or let's call it $300,000, $200,000 down, $100,000 to actually fix up the problem. Remember, you're an investor on a slum load. You got to invest in the asset right, so you need $300,000. Let's say, you've done well for yourself. You have 50K. Well, you need to raise 50K. So you got a shout on your Facebook. You got a shout on your family WhatsApp group.

34:50
If you have that, wherever you talk to people, this is what I'm trying to do now. Do you want to invest Right Now, real quickly? You got to also understand that you're not coming from a place of begging for people to help you. You're actually helping them right, because real estate for the rest of time, is one of the most solid asset class in the country, like it's a hard asset. I mean, if you buy right, you probably do very, very well, okay, so you get to understand that. So you get that money together. You buy the asset, you close on the deal.

35:20
Now, remember, you can't do anything by yourself. Well, at this point you already know that you cannot, because you've gone to your family and friends and you're not so rich, uncle and they've helped you, so you already know. But you need to get a property management company, especially if it's your first deal. You need to get a mentor, you need to understand that you need that help. This is all me assuming that you've gotten a mentor at the beginning too, because you need to underwrite the deal, make sure the cash on cash return is good, all that kind of stuff, right. So you buy the deal, you get a property management company to help you with kind of the day to day, right? They're going to pick up the phones, they're going to answer like email, stuff like that. This is one of the biggest thing I try to teach.

35:57
My main thesis you don't want to walk inside of the business, meaning you don't want to be the one picking up the phone. You know, oh, you want to look at the unit today. I'll come on. No, no, no. You want to walk on the business. And what does that mean? Specifically, again, laser, you're going to have a. They're going to say these are the amount of people that came to look at, you know, apartments these are the ones that signed the lease. You're going to have a spreadsheet and if you want that spreadsheet, you can reach out to me and share that with me. That's you working on the business. So you're going to have a weekly or bi-weekly call with the property management company and then you are managing them as the asset manager, right? So you do that for a few years. You know, typically in an industry is like three to seven, three to five years.

36:41
You buy the asset and you sell. If you're lucky enough that you able to bring 300k by yourself because you were trading stocks when you were 16 and you raised some money yourself, you can keep that asset forever. Right? That's another thing you know we don't, we don't talk about. You can keep that asset forever. You don't have to sell, right? So if it's, especially if it's a good asset, so do that. If you have to sell, then sell. But just make sure, invest in the property. You know, pull back into the property, take care of the people as much as you can Not all tenants are nice, by the way. So that's, you know. That's the yeah, exactly. So just bought the ones that take care of all of them, try to be a good person, do your best and usually you're going to have a good good drawing. You're going to exit the deal.

37:23
So quick summary of kind of finding deal and exiting the deal. Usually I'm a man of integrity so I give the same broker that brought me a deal I give them to sell. At the end that's a whole, not a conversation. Well, and I always look for deals through brokers. I never go direct to sell because brokers wake up every day, kiss their wife or husbands just to find deals. Yeah, that's all they do. Let them do that. Don't try to. You know it never works.

37:52 - Samy (Host)
I like that. Yeah, I guess you're right. In theory, you could be running around and trying to make phone calls and sending letters, but, you know, I guess the question is like what you value more your time or money, you know, and so like, if you value your time, you'll pay whatever percentage you need to pay for the brokers, but their, their, mind is on finding the right deals for you. So I love that. Thank you, thanks for walking us through that. I'm glad we got that and I feel like I feel like that was definitely a really summarized version and and and you know, and all the, even the prep process, the underwriting process, there's, there's.

38:25
I can imagine how much goes into that before you even source the deals. So we could spend hours and hours, I imagine, just just doing that. But in in, you know, just to make sure that we're we're staying on time. Oh, I'm going to ask you for just just share a quick moment. That really helped you. You know, realize that that multifamily syndication is not just something that you enjoy, but it's, this is like. Picture yourself in five, 10, 15 years. What's that one moment and what's on the horizon coming up for for dwelling.

38:56 - Ola (Host)
I mean, I think it's that philosophy of freedom. And you know, I tell folks like wealth as we know it, or for someone like me, anyway, growing up in Africa, and I remember we, you know, watching, like you know, the, the E-pop stars, the rap videos and and you see the big chains right and the nice cars, and you think, like, like something happens to kids, right, we think, oh, that's money, like that's wealth, and we have no idea, right. So obviously, now you know older, seen wealth, understand it, read a little books about it, listen to great folks. I know wealth is basically when you don't have to directly exchange your time for money. Right, I don't care if you make $20,000, you can be wealthy. I don't care what that numerical number is. I mean, obviously we want that number to be as high as possible but it's when you don't directly have to trade your time for money and you can be wherever you want to be with whoever you want to be, doing whatever you want to do. I think that's the definition of wealth.

39:57
And to go back to your question, I feel like I'm at that place where I mean I don't have to report to anybody. I don't have to. You know, I'm mentally free. You know I do whatever I want to do. I have a young family who loves me, regardless of whatever number is, wherever and whatever it counts. That is wealth for me. And what I found you know, especially real estate in general helps me do that because I don't have to be talking to or, you know, I have about 20 or 50 units right now, right on the management, so I don't have to be talking to all those families. You know helping them with their leaking toilets and you know help. You know showing them apartment yeah, I don't have to do that. So I'm able to walk on my business and not in my business from wherever I am in the world. I love that.

40:45 - Samy (Host)
Yeah.

40:46 - Ola (Host)
And you know, just a misconception. And I want young men, all of America, to just understand this and young girls I have two girls, right, Don't get like trapped in that philosophy of like you have to earn a lot of money to be someone. Now, don't get me wrong, I think money is extremely helpful, Do not, Don't get me wrong. Well, the constant chase of this elusive number is toxic. So, you know, Instagram and all these guys, you know don't help, right, it does not help. I have children, so, like it doesn't help. I see it Like we know. We know we don't want to be telling kids like, hey, you're gonna get.

41:28
You can do it. You know you're gonna get this much. Like how much money do you need? Maybe start there, like, what does that look like? I mean, if you're 25 years old in America, you probably don't need $10,000 a month. Like, what are you eating? How many yeezys are you buying Like you're 25 years old, right? So, and even for a 40-year-old guy, like you know, like you just have to understand that, because at the end of the day, it's all about the health of the nation and the well-being of the nation, right? I think for me it's just having that freedom, you know, and just being able to contribute, like the way I am right now, and I can have a voice. Give my two cents. That's how I know. This is all I want to do for my life.

42:09 - Samy (Host)
Taking your I guess your mentee ship and turning it into a mentorship.

42:12 - Ola (Host)
So I yeah, that's awesome. Oh, I love it. You gotta get your back.

42:17 - Samy (Host)
I always appreciate. I always appreciate people that are Are not only willing to share their knowledge but they look for opportunities to share it. You know, I feel like that's something special and so I'm really, I'm really glad I feel like the first time we met, you know, you're at our office and Madison title and I just I loved your energy and and and your passion and your your excitement to take on, you know, new challenges, and so I really appreciate you coming on today on the podcast. I'm gonna share just a couple of really rapid fire questions, just just to kind of get to know you a little bit on a on a personal level. So, first thing, what's one thing you do every day to start your morning off right? Oh, uh, meditation, meditation, love it. I. I pray every day, so I'm the same way also pray to also pray.

43:05 - Ola (Host)
We're gonna have that.

43:06 - Samy (Host)
That's it, man. And what is a hobby, your interest, that you have outside of work, that most people don't know about? Ola?

43:12 - Ola (Host)
Oh man, hobby house out of work. I shouldn't be thinking this hard, right? I love reading. I'm a ferocious reader.

43:21 - Samy (Host)
Well, that's good, because that that leads us to the next question, then what's a? What's a book or podcast that you're you've been enjoying lately?

43:28 - Ola (Host)
Oh man, I'm reading like I don't know. I'm reading like two, three books. I've got this book in front of me. Daniel priestly is a is a lot. She's an Australian living in Britain right now. I love, I love him so much. But just kind of classically, like, what book do I love? I love a book by Maccos, really again, called meditations. It's not about meditation, by the way. It's a very tough read but it's a good one. Sounds like the Bible. We've got that kind of doll house, you know, kind of what in it?

43:57
Yeah, but it's a. It's a great read.

44:00 - Samy (Host)
And finally, what is one piece of advice that you would give to your younger self?

44:04 - Ola (Host)
There's always a price to pay and there are no discount in life. There's always a price to pay and there are no this time.

44:09 - Samy (Host)
Well, I'm gonna have to meditate on that for a while I.

44:13 - Ola (Host)
Love that, I'll pay the full price.

44:15 - Samy (Host)
Oh, any any last words that you'd like to share with with our audience.

44:19 - Ola (Host)
Yeah, I mean just really. First, thank you, sammy. If you're out there trying to be someone, remember this conversation. If this is the one thing you take out keep Keep throwing seeds, keep doing, keep doing and give yourself time. Keep doing and give yourself time. That, literally, is the formula to success. Keep doing like stuff, whatever it is. It could be like in your business sending emails 4,000 emails, it doesn't matter, like I don't care what that thing is. Send 4,000 emails and then you get one thing one job, one project, one engagement, one deal. It doesn't matter, it's that thing you see on Instagram with the guy chipping away at the wall and then there's like all the gold or diamonds, and then, just before the last one, he just turns back. Right, I love it.

45:04
So yeah, it's like you just keep going, like that's it, that's just all this is just keep going.

45:11 - Samy (Host)
Oh, I really, really appreciate that and thank you very much for sharing your your personal journey and and just sharing so much value for all those listening. You can find all of Dante's from from Dwellin, that's D, w, e, lly and N, and I believe all I. Himself has his own podcast called the financial freedom through a real estate investing podcast. Check him out on Apple podcast, modify your favorite podcasts and Ola. What's the best place for people to reach you? If they want to reach you, we want to get involved in your investments. Maybe they want to do something. What's a good place for them to reach out to?

45:44 - Ola (Host)
yeah, I mean I think the website, like you said, you know Dwellincom, and if you can't remember that, just you know, just go to invest with Olacom or just reach out to me on Instagram. Happens all the time.

45:57 - Samy (Host)
Ola, thank you again so much for joining us. We really appreciate having you on the show and all our listeners. Thanks for joining us again for another Episode of the commissure real estate connection podcast. Looking forward to catching you at the next episode.