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Investing Across Borders with Kevin Leonce · The Academy Presents podcast

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  Did you know that 90 % of the world's millionaires
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  invest in real estate? Well, I'm Angel with the
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  Academy Presents Real Estate Investing Rocks,
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  and I'm here to help you if you want to go for
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  your piece of that pie. Are you new? Are you
• 0:19
  new to this and you just don't know where to
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  start? It's okay. Are you someone that has invested,
• 0:25
  but you feel stuck, you feel like you've lost
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  momentum, you don't know where to really head
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  from here? Are you a seasoned real estate investor
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  who is doing great but maybe you just want to
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  hone a few skills here and there? This is the
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  place for you. The Academy Presents Real Estate
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  Investing Rocks podcast will connect you with
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  industry experts so that you can save time, avoid
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  costly mistakes, and begin living the life you've
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  dreamed of all through real estate investing.
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  You're already taking the first step. just by
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  joining us here today. Hey guys it's Angel and
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  you are here with us at the Academy Presents
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  Real Estate Investing Rock Spring Summit and
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  it has been amazing. We've had a pretty chilly
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  spring here in Wichita Falls. I got my sweater
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  on and I'm inside. I got my socks on because
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  it's it's just chilly. It's like you know we're
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  pre -recording here so you know we're at the
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  beginning of February and it's 28 degrees here.
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  And I'm looking at my friend Kevin over there,
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  and he's like in the islands. It's probably,
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  what temperature is it over there? It's been
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  cooler these days, but that is like around 78,
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  80 degrees. Oh, so chilly. But you know, beyond
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  the weather. Kevin has got some amazing experiences
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  to share with us because he invests in the U
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  .S. and the cool thing that comes from that is
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  I have friends right here where I live that are
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  afraid to invest and so we're going to weave
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  some of that in there but we're also going to
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  talk about some of his other investments he's
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  got going on and just how it works to really
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  invest internationally and what it takes. So
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  Kevin I'm going to let you take over tell us
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  a little bit about your background and then we'll
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  get going. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having
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  me first off, you know, absolutely Yeah, so myself.
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  Well, I have been in Trinidad and Tobago all
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  my life living in Travel a few but not lived
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  anywhere else pussy. I Am an accountant by profession.
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  So I've been involved in accountancy primarily
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  on a gas accountant for the better part of two
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  decades more than two decades actually, and some
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  financial services. So that's where a lot of
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  my analytical skills come from. I still do it
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  today, also on a consultancy basis. I have a
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  few clients that I do that with, but I'm delving
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  more into real estate hoping to get that going
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  on a full -time basis. Cool. Yeah, so I know
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  like when we first started talking about this
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  like, When I think about international investors,
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  I think, oh, you just have to have a US -based
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  LLC. And then it works easy because that's what
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  I always heard. And when I took foreign exchange
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  markets, it was like, oh, you just trade your
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  currency for whatever currency you need. And
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  there's a spread. There's a bid ask spread. And
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  I say it like that because I had an econ professor
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  one time that did not call it a bid ask spread.
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  He called it the very close other two words.
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  which was hilarious. But I mean, sometimes there
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  might be a water spread, but I was always taught
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  that you could, you could exchange any currency
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  and that's not quite the way it is, right? Yeah,
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  that's well, okay. So in theory is depending
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  on where you're from, where you're located. So
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  for me, I'm in the Caribbean and for probably
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  the past more than 12, probably 15 years, what's
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  been happening is that our island, we are more
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  a net imports country. So we import most of our
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  stuff. We are oil and gas based. So a lot of
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  the income that we generate is US dollars because
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  of oil and gas. However, when the prices change
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  with oil and gas, it does affect us. And when
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  that happened, I can't even remember when, sometime
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  in the early 2000s. That was or created a shortage,
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  a so -called shortage. It's more so a controlled,
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  you know, delivery of U .S. currency. So the
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  government decided to control it because we are
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  net imports, so we needed to have import cover.
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  So we need to have something like six to eight
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  months import cover. So they decided to control
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  how much U .S. currency the citizens spent. So
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  that limited us as to how much we could get in
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  terms of just going to the bank and purchase.
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  And as a result, all foreign currencies became
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  difficult for us because it's pegged on the US
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  dollar. So you're one to one on the US dollar,
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  like, pegged straight to the dollar? No. It's
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  like, yeah, we're a managed float. Not just a
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  float, a managed float. So they control what
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  it is most of the time. High and low. Yeah. Yeah.
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  So we are six, let's say around $7, $70 to $1
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  US dollar. And to get any other foreign currency,
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  I think mostly banks, they use the US to purchase
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  those other currencies. So that's how this US
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  thing impacts us. with respect to all foreign
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  currencies. Wow. Yeah. So that's. Wow. Yeah.
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  So, you know, investing in the U .S. is a challenge.
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  There are obstacles. There are many things to
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  overcome, not just the distance. It's more so
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  with financing. And I mean, one of the the good
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  things about it is, for example, you know, Marvelous
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  Monday, which is the Yeah. Which is the meat
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  of that Rachel and Jason Force. You know, it's
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  it is beneficial because it created a lot of
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  relationships and building those relationships
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  over time, it helped me in some of those challenges
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  a little easier, a little bit, you know, better
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  to or help it to help you to overcome it a little
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  better. So, you know, that's good with respect
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  to that. Well, and I would say like just the,
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  the whole creation of the virtual landscape over
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  the last three years. Like I'm never, I'm never
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  going to say COVID was a good thing, but at the
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  same time, it created this virtual landscape
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  and these virtual interactions that sorta took
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  place before then. But now we've got, like you've
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  got three, four meetups a day that are virtual.
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  And I find it really beneficial too because we're
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  two hours from any real major town. Oklahoma
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  City is two hours from us going straight up.
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  DFW is two hours from us going to the right.
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  We've got Lawton, we've got Decatur, we've got
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  some other little stuff. But the big cities are
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  at least two hours away. And while I'll go to
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  DFW for some face -to -face meetups, I'll go
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  maybe once, twice, three times a month. I really
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  feel like these virtual meetups and these virtual
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  events have really they've made those face -to
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  -face meetups just a little bit less important.
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  It's not like they're ever gonna go away because
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  they're still, meeting somebody face -to -face
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  is pretty awesome. And it gives you the ability
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  to really kind of recheck what you were thinking
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  with your internal compass. But the virtual stuff,
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  I mean, like there's a member on our GP team.
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  like Frank Padalano, he and I met virtually before
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  we met face to face. So we had been chit chatting
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  on Facebook because he used to be a teacher.
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  I was a teacher. I would whine, moan and complain
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  about being a teacher and he would listen to
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  me and he would even type back at two in the
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  morning, which is like three a .m. his time.
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  Blew my mind. But that was how we became friends
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  was through Facebook. And so there are plenty
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  of people that I've met and become friends with
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  because of that virtual environment. So while
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  The pandemic itself isn't a great thing. The
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  virtual landscape that was created due to it
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  has been amazing. Yep. And it also made everyone
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  else a little more comfortable with investing
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  from a distance as well because they know you
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  can see things, you know, virtually. You don't
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  have to touch it because let's be honest, right?
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  Some people create this myth that, you know,
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  you have to see it. You have to be there. But
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  when you see the property, What next? That's
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  it. You just jump on a plane, touch the property,
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  and you leave. You know, how much can you do,
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  you know? Because you're not doing the construction,
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  you're not doing the rehab, you know, that type
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  of thing. So, I mean, I'm trying to be as practical
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  as possible, but, you know, that may not be the
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  best, you know, example, but still. But you've
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  got a totally different perspective on it. Yeah.
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  Because you've got investments in the U .S. Yeah,
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  I do. I do have those investments. Like, the
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  very first property that I purchased, I partnered
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  up with someone, a single -family home in Florida.
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  And it's been sold. I sold my share in it. And
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  to this day, I still haven't even seen it, you
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  know? I got it, held it for like five years,
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  and then sold it, and I still haven't seen it.
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  However, I was partnered up with someone on that
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  deal, so I... placed a lot of trust in him and
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  then when I saw my share I went and purchased
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  some duplexes in Georgia. I did go to see those
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  because I had to be there to sign when we were
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  closing so I just decided to drive and then I
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  realized okay I drove by the properties and that
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  was it. And what is all of this? I spent all
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  this money, spent all this time, and I just drove
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  on the street, made a U -turn, and left. That
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  is so funny. So I think when we first started
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  investing passively, we were in four different
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  deals. And I think we only drove by one. And
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  it was because we just happened to be in Houston.
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  I was like, we should drive by the property.
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  And so we literally got in the car, put it in
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  the GPS and drove by it and kind of waved. But
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  what were we going to do? Get out, talk to somebody
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  in the office? What were we going to say? We
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  passively invest in this property. Nobody cares.
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  Yeah. And the thing is, like, you realize that
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  it depends on the specific type of investor.
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  So if it is that you are a fix and flip investor
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  and you you know or DIY investor well you know
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  that's totally different yeah you will have to
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  see go and check out your property see what type
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  of work you have to do and all of that jazz so
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  it all depends on the type of investors so it
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  will vary yeah i want to like um we're planning
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  on at this year in this year at some point um
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  inviting our investors to Wichita Falls and getting
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  a bus and letting people see what we have here
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  and letting them see their property and walking
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  them around if we happen to have some empty units,
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  letting them go through some units. And then
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  there's a winery in Iowa Park that our friend
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  owns and ending the day there with like a catered
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  meal and some wine. And so we got, cause I think
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  people, once they see the property, they get
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  a different feel for it. Especially if if the
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  owner is talking to you about or someone from
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  your operating team is talking to you about it.
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  And I got the idea from Clive Davis because I
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  saw that he had done a bus tour and I asked him
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  about it. We were recording for the for our podcast.
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  I was like, yeah, tell me about this thing because
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  I've only seen a couple of other people do bus
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  tours. Tell me about what you did. And he said
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  basically they. The MFIN, the one that Kenny
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  Wolf has with Kenny and John Monteer on that
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  group, and Disrupt Equity, they were doing theirs
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  in Atlanta. And so he, like the day after it
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  was over, so like on that Sunday, they did a
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  bus tour. And I think he said at that point,
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  they had three properties. And so they toured
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  two, and the last one was a development. And
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  they have like fire pits set up and apple cider
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  and little snacks. And that was how they ended.
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  And that's what gave me the idea of adding in
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  the winery. sophisticated and now Clive is on
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  my tail about he's like when's your best tour
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  2023 when's your best tour yeah but actually
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  that property that we close on we also do an
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  uh investor tool in me yeah and that one's in
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  Dayton yeah in Dayton Texas Yeah, very nice.
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  Yeah, I really like being in Texas. I'm not real
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  happy with the tax situation right now because
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  even though it's nondisclosure, it's still taxes
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  are going up and I think they're just going up
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  everywhere. But that used to kind of be a cool
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  thing about Texas that we didn't have taxes that
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  were that bad and they're still not bad. It's
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  just that we've been used to underwriting for
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  a different amount. Yeah, so Jason has to change
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  up his model. But one of the things that like
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  we were mentioning earlier, investing from a
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  distance, I don't want to say long distance,
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  from a distance, because it could be closer.
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  You just need to definitely build those relationships.
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  You need to have relationships, really, really
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  good relationships with your property manager,
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  really good relationships with lenders, brokers
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  as well. And people need to know who you are
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  because The more you get out there, the more
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  comfortable people will feel with you. You will
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  feel with people and you will be able to kind
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  of put a lot more trust in what you are about
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  to do. And I also think that there's like what
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  you were saying, you know, people have become
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  way more comfortable in this in this landscape.
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  Like if I'm going to talk to somebody, I would
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  rather talk to him over Zoom. or I'll text them
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  because at least texting, there's like, there's
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  a paper trail because I need, I need, I need
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  to be able to look at the conversation because
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  that's how I'm going to remember it and remember
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  the pieces that go into it. But like I've talked
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  to plenty of people that have invested from overseas
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  or invested from other countries and they are
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  so much more comfortable investing. And when
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  you actually look at the distances for some people,
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  it'd be like if you lived in New York and you
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  invested in you know if you invested in the Carolinas
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  or you invested in Texas sometimes for some people
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  in different countries that distance is further
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  than where they are to Texas or from where from
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  wherever they are to the investment it's like
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  wow.