Latest / The Academy Presents podcast / Building a Real Estate Fund with Melanie McDaniel Part III
Transcript
- 0:03Did you know that 90 % of the world's millionaires
- 0:07invest in real estate? Well, I'm Angel with the
- 0:10Academy Presents Real Estate Investing Rocks
- 0:13and I'm here to help you if you want to go for
- 0:16your piece of that pie. Are you new? Are you
- 0:20new to this and you just don't know where to
- 0:22start? It's okay. Are you someone that has invested
- 0:27but you feel stuck, you feel like you've lost
- 0:29momentum, you don't know where to really head
- 0:31from here? Are you a seasoned real estate investor
- 0:35who is doing great but maybe you just want to
- 0:37hone a few skills here and there? This is the
- 0:40place for you. The Academy Presents Real Estate
- 0:43Investing Rocks podcast will connect you with
- 0:46industry experts so that you can save time, avoid
- 0:50costly mistakes, and begin living the life you've
- 0:54dreamed of all through real estate investing.
- 0:58You're already taking the first step. just by
- 1:01joining us here today. How much money can I make?
- 1:06Well, this is obviously going to vary because
- 1:08it depends on how you structure the deal, how
- 1:10good you are at finding deals that provide a
- 1:13return and your investor database. If they like
- 1:16your fee structure or not, I mean, how much money
- 1:19can you raise? How, you know, all of this matters.
- 1:21It can be very lucrative. Some of the biggest
- 1:25money people in our country are fund managers,
- 1:29hedge fund managers, and like Ray Dalio and BlackRock
- 1:33and all those guys. Those are outliers for sure.
- 1:37But an average person running some funds, 100
- 1:41million AUM or whatever, it's a very cozy, cozy
- 1:44life. And if you're doing it right, you're not
- 1:47just getting paid transactionally, you're getting
- 1:48equity. Because isn't that what we're investors?
- 1:51We want equity, we want the tax benefits. So
- 1:53fees are fine. Fees keep the lights on. Fees
- 1:58keep food on the table. But it's the equity and
- 2:00the carrier, the promote, the splits. That's
- 2:03what I'm after, really. So I'd like both sides,
- 2:08because in a syndication, we ride both sides,
- 2:10GP and LP. So when you're fun, can you do both?
- 2:14Yes. OK. It's taking fees. I'm going to have
- 2:19to get a drink. Can you pause it? Sorry. However,
- 2:24I can pause it. Okay, y 'all may not know, but
- 2:31I just had like a coughing fit, so we're good
- 2:33now. What were we talking about? Fees? You were
- 2:38talking about like the carry promote? Yes, yes,
- 2:41yes. So when you, the fees, it's exactly like
- 2:44a syndication. You have acquisition fees, you
- 2:46have capital event fees, you have dispo fees,
- 2:49you have asset management fees, fees, fees, fees,
- 2:52everybody loves fees. No, they don't actually,
- 2:54but you have to have fees to keep the lights
- 2:56on, okay? So in a fund, typically you have at
- 3:00least three ways to make money at a minimum.
- 3:03Of course, you can make money other ways. As
- 3:05the fund of funds, you could have an asset management
- 3:07fee, which I will have. But it's not going to
- 3:10be like a 2 % like you would on the syndication,
- 3:12because there's not much to manage. So it wouldn't
- 3:15be fair to charge the investors 2 % if all you're
- 3:17doing is quarterly taking in financials and spitting
- 3:20them out on your end, right? There's really not
- 3:22a lot of management to be done. That's what I
- 3:23love about a fund of funds, especially if it's
- 3:2510 years long, because you make quite a bit of
- 3:28money. So it might be a 1 % fee, or even a half
- 3:30a percent, honestly. If you have a $25 million
- 3:32fund, 1 % is $250 ,000 a year for not doing too
- 3:38much. Right? So I could charge a half a percent
- 3:41and still have a really nice payday. Then the
- 3:45fund cost fee is a hard cost fee. I talked about
- 3:49that earlier, that one percent that can be charged
- 3:51to your fund, but it has it does not pay you.
- 3:55You never get to line your pockets with that.
- 3:56That is truly fund cost fees and any money that
- 4:00isn't spent like I'm going to raise the one percent
- 4:02or sorry. Yeah, two percent up front because
- 4:05it's 10 years long up front. And that half a
- 4:09million dollars is gonna pay for the fund for
- 4:1010 years. And if we end up closing out in year
- 4:13seven, I will return that money to the investors,
- 4:16because that's just the fund cost fees. That's
- 4:18not Melanie's bonus, okay? The asset management
- 4:21fee is a manager fee. And then where the real
- 4:25wealth is made is in the promote or the carry
- 4:28or the split or the whatever the heck you wanna
- 4:31call it. So in syndications, you might see a
- 4:3370 -30, 75 -25, 80 -20, whatever. Same in a fund.
- 4:38But it's a fund of funds. So the underlying guy
- 4:44that's doing all the deals, he's taking his 70
- 4:47-30. So I'm not going to go to my fund and take
- 4:49another 70 -30, right? My fund max would be a
- 4:531 -10, a 1 % asset management fee, a 10 % promote,
- 4:58maybe even a 5 % promote. Because again, it's
- 5:01not that complicated. There's not a lot of hands
- 5:03-on. I'm not doing a lot. Once the fund is open,
- 5:06and we close it, that first year is all my work
- 5:10is done in year one. I have to pick the right
- 5:12deals, and I have to raise all the capital. I
- 5:15close it, and then it's just steady as she goes
- 5:18after that. So a 10 % promote maybe. I might
- 5:22do mine where it's a nine prep. and then 1 %
- 5:25catch up. So my investors, it is a 90 -10 split,
- 5:28but my investors get their share first. I take
- 5:31a catch up of the 1%, and then we split 90 -10
- 5:33after that. So I don't know, might even be a
- 5:3590 -5 -5, honestly. I'm not sure yet. I haven't
- 5:39finalized everything. I need an advisor to look
- 5:42at it and tell me, yes, that's appropriate, or
- 5:44no, Melanie, it's your first big fund. Yeah,
- 5:47you're taking way too much, something like that.
- 5:49Who knows? The fund structuring is definitely
- 5:53a skill that is, if you don't know how to do
- 5:56it, you don't know. There's some really complicated
- 5:59structures out there. There's like European waterfalls,
- 6:01American waterfalls, there's splits, there's
- 6:03whatever. But to answer your question, yes, there's
- 6:07fees and then there's carry. Okay, so structure.
- 6:12So you can make no money in a fund as well. We
- 6:15were talking about how much can we make? It can
- 6:17be very minimal. If you don't, believe you deserve
- 6:21fees or you don't take enough carry, you're going
- 6:24to work your booty off and make no money. That's
- 6:27not fun. I'm kind of learning that lesson with
- 6:29Freestyle Fund right now because I'm so anti
- 6:31-fee that I'm not paying myself. So year one
- 6:37was kind of challenging because it wasn't very,
- 6:39it's not very motivating if your fund manager
- 6:42is not making money. So you have to find that
- 6:43balance where it's appealing for the investors.
- 6:48but also the manager is making a living. How
- 6:52you structure matters. So we talk about structure
- 6:54a bit, not just for payment, but you have to
- 6:58sell the thing. If I go to my investors and say,
- 7:00hey, give me your money, we're going to go 50
- 7:02-50 on this thing. I'm not going to have a single
- 7:05investor. So how you sell it, how you sell yourself,
- 7:10your thesis or your experience, all of that matters.
- 7:14The value you bring matters. really good opportunities
- 7:17for your fund, that's really where your value
- 7:20comes in. Getting access to deals your investors
- 7:22couldn't have had otherwise by your relationships
- 7:25you build, that's huge. Being able to write a
- 7:28larger check so you can go in and negotiate a
- 7:30different share class than a typical investor,
- 7:33that brings value. So you need to know where
- 7:35you can bring value. Of course, the performance
- 7:39of the fund matters. It needs to perform well
- 7:41if you're going to make any money beyond a fee.
- 7:44And then at the bottom there, you can make money
- 7:47in a carry, promote your startup costs. I am
- 7:49going to charge a 1 % fee just in startup costs.
- 7:51So by $25 million fund, as soon as I have every
- 7:54penny raised, I will have made $250 ,000. Oh,
- 7:58sorry, that's acquisition fee. That would be
- 8:00an acquisition fee for me. Startup cost is the
- 8:02hard cost. So besides the 1 % or 2 % for the
- 8:07life of the fund, I'm charging the fund $100
- 8:10,000 just to start up the thing. That's a hard
- 8:13cost. That's legal docs and everything I talked
- 8:15about, the LLCs, whatever. And if I don't spend
- 8:17it all, that's fine. I'll send it back. But I
- 8:20already have budgeted $100 ,000 just in the startup
- 8:23costs. So when we close the fund, it's not like
- 8:28I'm out 100 grand waiting to be paid back because
- 8:31I did that on Freestyle Fund. I carried the load
- 8:33of the funds expenses my first year of Freestyle
- 8:36Fund. It's not fun. Not only did I not make money,
- 8:41really, I mean, at the end of the day, at the
- 8:43end of the year, we did make money, but I was
- 8:44carrying the cost and not making money. And that's,
- 8:47again, not fun. So that's my journey and my lessons.
- 8:51Hopefully someone else doesn't make the same
- 8:53lessons. You have to know your value and you
- 8:54have to make some money. And you have to know
- 8:58where all these costs are going to come in and
- 9:00how to project them and write the pro forma.
- 9:02capital event fees. I'm not going to have those
- 9:05any divestitures or capital of it. I personally
- 9:07don't like capital event fees. So, but you could
- 9:09potentially charge that. Okay. How do we find
- 9:12investors? How are we on time? Okay. Are we,
- 9:17I don't know. I don't remember what time we started,
- 9:19but I find this stuff like super interesting.
- 9:22So, well, I, I think we're, I think I'll speed
- 9:26it up here. So how do you find them? Syndication
- 9:30investors are not the same as fund investors,
- 9:32remember I said that, so it depends on if you
- 9:34can advertise or not, but you can always go to
- 9:37conferences, you can always go to networking,
- 9:39you can always use your relationships, ask for
- 9:42referrals, and maybe your partners can, or a
- 9:47partner promoter or something, maybe they can,
- 9:49you can bring someone like that into your team.
- 9:52Pitch opportunities if your fund's big enough
- 9:54and you have an opportunity to, to do a pitch
- 9:57to a group, then that's one way tapping into
- 10:00family offices, private equity groups, investment
- 10:02clubs, country clubs. There's a lot of money
- 10:04in there. There's so many ways. And then, of
- 10:07course, if you can advertise, you can sell ads
- 10:10or whatever. So personally, I am big on relationships
- 10:14that worked really well up until I need to raise
- 10:17$25 million. So now I've brought in two key partner
- 10:21promoters, one She's just a big name in the space
- 10:26and she's in this movement for empowering women.
- 10:29And so our women founded women managed fund,
- 10:32it fits her platform perfectly. She just wants
- 10:35equity and she's going to open her database to
- 10:37me. And then the other guy is a local Austin
- 10:40promoter of sorts. He runs, he calls them supernova
- 10:45dinners. They used to be called mansion dinners
- 10:47where he puts accredited investors in a room
- 10:49and for $10 ,000 he gets a caterer full bar and
- 10:5330. ready and willing investors and you pay the
- 10:5610K, you stand up, you give your pitch, everybody
- 10:59eats and networks and hopefully some money comes
- 11:01out of that. So he's my promoter partner because
- 11:05he knows a lot of people. So these are just some
- 11:08ideas. There are so many ways to meet investors.
- 11:12Awesome. For me, fighting deals, that's to find
- 11:15investors. Fighting deals, conferences, again,
- 11:17the same people are at those conferences, again,
- 11:20relationships, referrals. It's all about who
- 11:22you know. Your network is your net worth. You
- 11:24just have to know how to mine your network, because
- 11:28everybody is already there, probably. I don't
- 11:32look for deals online. If they are advertising,
- 11:36they're probably not my fund that I want to invest
- 11:39in. They are not in a high ticket coaching program.
- 11:43I have huge skepticism. If somebody is selling
- 11:46a program, I'm so skeptical of them. Not saying
- 11:51they're all bad by any means at all, but if they're
- 11:55really good at promote like a mastermind or a
- 11:59coaching program and they're selling a high ticket
- 12:01coaching program, how good are they at being
- 12:03an operator? And I'm finding they're not. They're
- 12:07not always the best at both. They might be a
- 12:08really great trainer. but the deals are just
- 12:11not living up to the standards of the training.
- 12:14I don't know. I've been burned a few times. So
- 12:16not saying that's always the case, but personally,
- 12:19if they have a high ticket coaching program,
- 12:21I already am skeptical. Track record matters.
- 12:25Experience matters. If you're investing a fund
- 12:28in a fund of funds, I would say multiple funds.
- 12:31Even if someone's done 20 syndications and they
- 12:34decide to start a fund, I'm Very, very careful
- 12:38because running a fund is not the same thing
- 12:40as, you know, doing one -off syndication deals
- 12:42because they're raising money, raising money,
- 12:44raising money, and they needed to deploy that
- 12:46capital. And if they can't deploy it fast enough
- 12:49and they're taking in money, they're going to
- 12:51go and buy something that they have no business
- 12:53buying because they feel like they need to spend
- 12:54the money. So not saying you can't, but be super
- 13:00skeptical and ask a lot more questions. I'm looking
- 13:04for higher minimums. uh in funds so million minimum
- 13:0710 million minimum like put me in those deals
- 13:10those are the ones I want closed access meaning
- 13:12invitation only you have to know these people
- 13:14to even know that they're doing a fund and then
- 13:17tips who don't advertise so we kind of talked
- 13:19about that already and then yeah providing our
- 13:24investors value by finding this deal and investing
- 13:28either in something that has no access or you
- 13:30can negotiate with a higher check So here's some
- 13:35of the platforms I mentioned, VeraVest and Avestor.
- 13:38They're kind of the done for you sort of platform.
- 13:41InvestNext, Cashflow Portal. They're just a portal
- 13:44that they can hold a pretty simple fund. NAV
- 13:47is the one I mentioned before that does the administration.
- 13:50Juniper Square I'm working on. I've heard that
- 13:52they do that. I haven't vetted them or haven't
- 13:54even had a demo call with them yet, hopefully
- 13:56sometime this week. Some sort of investor portal,
- 14:00which could... already BNNAB or Juniper Square,
- 14:03of course, Verivest and Avestor have their own
- 14:05investor portals, and then the admin portal.
- 14:07So these are all kind of overlapping in a way.
- 14:12And one of the last questions, people, can they
- 14:15do this as a side gig? I would say possibly,
- 14:17but if you're going to do something really well,
- 14:19I think you just need to do one thing really
- 14:21well, and this requires focus. It's very, very
- 14:24high risk in that it's just simply dealing with
- 14:28other people's money and in a space that's regulated.
- 14:31I just I personally feel like you need to be
- 14:33all in. That's how I feel. Choose your partners
- 14:35wisely because once you get married, you're married.
- 14:38Or if you invest a bunch of money to launch a
- 14:40big fund and one year in you hate everybody hates
- 14:44each other and you want to shut down the fund.
- 14:46Well, you've already spent all of the money getting
- 14:49it set up. So it's hard to just walk away from
- 14:52that, especially if it's like an ongoing evergreen
- 14:55fund. So choose your partners wisely. And then
- 14:58make sure you have really good advisors and managers
- 15:03of the fund. Like if you're the manager, that's
- 15:06what your role should be if you're starting a
- 15:08fund. Or promoters and co -GPs, people that can
- 15:12help you. If you decide this is a side gig, then
- 15:15you need these people to help you. You probably
- 15:18shouldn't be managing a fund if it's a side gig,
- 15:20but you can definitely help. But I feel like
- 15:24it's an all -in sort of thing. So where do you
- 15:27get help? Your attorney team is going to be huge.
- 15:30They'll keep you out of trouble and within regulations.
- 15:34Some sort of mentor or a professional that's
- 15:37been there before you that can be a partner or
- 15:39potentially an advisor. Education, I mean, podcasts.
- 15:42I mentioned Marisu Rold. His is really good.
- 15:44Bridger Pennington, really good. Those are both
- 15:47on YouTube. Books or blogs, just... anything
- 15:51learning about funds. And you can learn about
- 15:53hedge funds or other types of funds. It will
- 15:55help you get a glimpse into real estate funds.
- 15:57Real estate is kind of specific, but it's more
- 15:59simple, I think, than a lot of the other funds.
- 16:02And then how to structure a fund is huge. Learn
- 16:06the lingo as well. Know what a promote is. Know
- 16:08what carry is. Know, you know, you want to know
- 16:12what you're talking about when you're talking
- 16:13to people and raising capital, especially if
- 16:15they're used to investing in funds. You want
- 16:17to know you that you have the right lingo. I
- 16:21provide consulting. If you want to use my link
- 16:26and want a phone call, I'm happy to talk to you.
- 16:29I don't want to necessarily, this is not like
- 16:32my end all be all. I don't want to do consultation,
- 16:36but I also don't want to talk to you for free.
- 16:41So to honor my time, I've freed up a few hours
- 16:44on my calendar a week where I will talk to people,
- 16:47but You're going to pay for my time. That's all
- 16:50I ask. It's not that much. I think for the value
- 16:53I can bring, but also know that I only know what
- 16:55I know and I've only gone on my journey so far.
- 16:58I'm probably only one or two steps ahead of you.
- 17:00So happy to help if, if I can. So there's that
- 17:03link again, my website and that's it. I'm done.
- 17:08Wow. Well, that was amazing and so much information
- 17:11and you've come a long way. Like, wow. I've been
- 17:17lucky enough to, like, kind of see the whole
- 17:18thing. So I credit that to COVID, as weird as
- 17:24that is, because it opened up so much of the
- 17:27landscape. It really, like you said, I mean,
- 17:31I wouldn't have met half of the people I met,
- 17:32even a quarter of the people I met, if I was
- 17:35stuck in just Wichita Falls. I'm two hours from
- 17:37DFW. I'm two hours from Oklahoma City. I mean,
- 17:40there's nothing here. So it was huge for us.
- 17:44It was huge. It definitely, even though I felt
- 17:47like 2020 was just the step back, it was definitely
- 17:51a leap forward in the long run for sure. And
- 17:54I've only built on those relationships and then
- 17:56built even more since then. No, absolutely. And
- 18:00guys, if you're listening to this and you should
- 18:02be, and you're thinking about a fun man, don't
- 18:05do it alone. And I like what she was saying about
- 18:08the side gig thing. Like I think about even syndication.
- 18:13There's a big difference between someone that's
- 18:15full -time real estate on a GP team and someone
- 18:18that has a job. I'm not saying one is more effective
- 18:21than the other, but the amount of time they have
- 18:23to hop on phone calls and devote to the team
- 18:26are vastly different. So just kind of keep that
- 18:29in mind. You may think, hey, I can do a fund
- 18:31on the side, but if this work week you're putting
- 18:34in 60 or 70 hours at your job, how much time
- 18:37do you realistically have to manage your fund?
- 18:42Just keep those things in mind because there
- 18:44are absolutely those weeks where you're working
- 18:46on somebody else's dream. That means you're putting
- 18:4880 hours in this week. So just keep those things
- 18:51in mind before you think you can side gig it
- 18:52without a bunch of help. And then be prepared
- 18:56to pay for the help that you have to employ if
- 18:57you are going to side gig it because they've
- 19:00got to be able to cover. I almost came out. They
- 19:03got to be able to see why you. when you're not
- 19:07available, because there will be times when your
- 19:09work requires you to not be available. So just
- 19:13keep those things in mind. And that there is
- 19:15like those of us that are on the team are going
- 19:17to see that there's a vast difference between
- 19:19the amount of time we can put into something
- 19:21and the amount of time you can put into having
- 19:22a W -2. I'm not saying we don't look down on
- 19:25you. We don't think badly of you. We just know
- 19:27that we have more time than you. So and also
- 19:30on that front, like. if you are the full -time
- 19:33person and you have part -time people or you
- 19:36have a side gig and you have full -time partners,
- 19:38that can cause some tension, by the way. I'm
- 19:41only speaking from experience on that one. Yeah,
- 19:44no, and I think part of that too is just because
- 19:46you can't come to all the meetings. And so we
- 19:49may be all, we may all be able to meet at 2 p
- 19:51.m. Central. and you can't come on till 5 p .m.
- 19:55Central or 5 30 p .m. Central when you're done
- 19:56with your day and at that point in time we're
- 19:59like hey we've done our time we're ready to hang
- 20:01out with our family or we have other obligations
- 20:04maybe our kids are in extracurriculars or maybe
- 20:06you don't have kids you have your own extracurriculars
- 20:08you want to go hang out with your friends somewhere
- 20:10else I mean those are realities and you just
- 20:13have to keep that in mind and I wouldn't say
- 20:15you want to get on a team of nothing but W tours
- 20:16because that would be super hard too but make
- 20:21sure that you really know the people that you're
- 20:23getting involved with if they're all full time
- 20:25and you're not because you don't you don't want
- 20:28there to be any sore feelings because there can
- 20:30be yeah but other than that Melanie thank you
- 20:34for being here and thank you for sharing and
- 20:37I'm just so happy that you're part of our circle
- 20:39and that we have all gotten to grow together
- 20:41because it's been it's been super neat those
- 20:43of us that really became that family in 2020
- 20:46like we've all come so far And it's been really
- 20:50neat to see that we've all kind of niche down
- 20:52into our own stuff. But we've all leveled up
- 20:54and we've all grown and it's just. I would say,
- 20:58yes, we've all not because there are some people
- 21:02that fell off the face of the earth. But the
- 21:05ones of us that are still here, yes, it's definitely
- 21:07fun to see where everybody's gone. And it's a
- 21:10really fun community. There's a lot of familiar
- 21:13faces. Now there are people that this is not
- 21:17for everybody. No. Can anybody do it if you're
- 21:20going to commit to it? But it is not for everybody.
- 21:23There's definitely a line there. I don't know
- 21:27if it's like everything else. I don't know if
- 21:28it's an 80 -20 split where you got all these
- 21:31people that come in, 80 % of them fall off. Because
- 21:33I think we're the 20 percenters to begin with.
- 21:36But there's some fall off. It's OK. Yeah. Like
- 21:45it or family obligations or you just don't have
- 21:47a choice. You have to have that job and then
- 21:49you don't have time to do the entrepreneurial
- 21:51thing and whatever it is. But yeah, happy to
- 21:53be part of your crew. Awesome. Well guys, remember
- 21:57there's tons over here. If this is where you
- 21:59want to be, this is where you want to be. That's
- 22:01fine. But consider getting that VIP subscription
- 22:04upgrade because we would love to have you on
- 22:06the live side. We have a lot of fun over there
- 22:07too. But until next time.