Today’s guest is Lupei Chou.
Lupei is an active-duty Naval Officer with 20 years of leadership, logistics, government contracting and project management experience in the Defense Industry. She has completed multiple deployments at sea and proudly served her country in Afghanistan.
Show summary:
During this episode, Lupei discusses her background in real estate investing, her experiences as a co-sponsor in syndication projects, the importance of selecting the right partner, challenges in asset management, balancing real estate investing with a full-time military job, and her future plans in real estate.
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Intro [00:00:00]
Lupe's Real Estate Background [00:00:55]
Challenges in Asset Management [00:06:12]
Lupe's transition from single-family to commercial real estate [00:11:59]
The benefits of the co-sponsor model [00:12:36]
Contact information and conclusion [00:13:01]
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Connect with Lupei:
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lupeichou/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lupeichou/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lupeic
Web: https://crowncapitalcorp.com/
Connect with Sam:
I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HowtoscaleCRE/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwilsonhowtoscalecre/
Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com
SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A RATING. Listen to How To Scale Commercial Real Estate Investing with Sam Wilson
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-scale-commercial-real-estate/id1539979234
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4m0NWYzSvznEIjRBFtCgEL?si=e10d8e039b99475f
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Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
Lupei Chou (00:00:00) - The most important thing is really about selecting your partner. Um. And we learn a lot in partnering with different people. And I also partner with. Other people, other investors outside syndication space. So I would say selecting your partner is absolutely the number one important thing to to be very selective, to be very careful with who you partner with.
Intro (00:00:28) - Welcome to the How to Scale commercial real estate show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we'll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big.
Sam Wilson (00:00:41) - Lupe Chow is an active duty naval officer with 20 years of leadership, logistics, government contracting and project management experience in the defense industry. Lupe. Welcome to the show.
Lupei Chou (00:00:53) - Thank you for having me, Sam.
Sam Wilson (00:00:55) - Absolutely. The pleasure is mine. Lupe. There are three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90s or less. Can you tell us where did you start? Where are you now and how did you get there?
Lupei Chou (00:01:05) - All right. I started as a single family investor, actually, even going way back, you know.
Lupei Chou (00:01:13) - My own rental property was, you know, my own house was became rental property due to military moves. So that was my first experience as a landlord. Um, I started in a single family space and moved to the multifamily and. Sorry, what's the second, third question?
Sam Wilson (00:01:32) - No, no, it's all good. Where did you start? Where are you now and then How did you get there?
Lupei Chou (00:01:39) - So how did I get there? Yeah. So what I learned was I don't make money in. In residential rental. It's very, very hard to make money. Um, I was, um, I had six units. Um, and, uh. I can have a repair issue. Maintenance issue. Wipe out the profit for the whole entire year very quickly. Very easily. So that's why we gotta go bigger. Have more units.
Sam Wilson (00:02:08) - What? What, what? What do you guys own? What's your portfolio look like today?
Lupei Chou (00:02:13) - So currently, my partner and I, we focused on taxes and Georgia.
Lupei Chou (00:02:19) - Those are our two primary primary markets. Atlanta. And there are a few places in Texas we are working on. But yeah, and we have, um, we have close to syndications. Um, but all of us started in the residential space before becoming syndicators.
Sam Wilson (00:02:40) - Got it. Got it. Yeah. So you got involved in syndication, said, Hey, I'm going to do multifamily real estate. What? What? I guess tell me about those projects and why you picked those in particular. Maybe even tell me when like give me some kind of some color to those projects and how you got those across the finish line.
Lupei Chou (00:02:58) - Really? You know, our first project, we are. We were co-sponsors. We really just. Joining another team to for experience and help with the race. Um, but we also have experience in small multi all of us, the three of us. Me and my partners. So we just want to move on to a bigger properties because as you know, right, like you and all your friends and people, you know, run out of money at some point, you have to be able to tap into the bigger investor pool and be able to raise.
Sam Wilson (00:03:35) - How have you done that? Let's let's talk about that for a second. Going out and finding a bigger investor pool, what's been some effective strategies you've employed to do that?
Lupei Chou (00:03:46) - I think everybody started out with their maybe their social media, and that's what I did too. I started sharing my story, um, just make a, you know, post about what I'm doing. That worked well, I think in the beginning, um, just to get the words out, let people know what you're doing. Um, and I did have a lot of friends, even friends I haven't talked to in a number of years, reaching out to me, you know, just interested or curious.
Sam Wilson (00:04:17) - That's great. That's great. So you guys had your first project you went into as a co-sponsor. What have been some things you've learned in going into a project as a co-sponsor? And maybe, maybe, are there things that you would have done differently or things that you said, Hey, we did this really well the first time through?
Lupei Chou (00:04:36) - I think that the most important thing is really about selecting your partner.
Lupei Chou (00:04:41) - Um. And we learn a lot in partnering with different people. And I also partner with. Other people, other investors outside syndication space. So I would say selecting your partner is absolutely the number one important thing to to be very selective, to be very careful with who you partner with.
Sam Wilson (00:05:06) - Yeah, absolutely. Anything else come to mind on that front as you review the tape and said, okay, we did this, you know, on our first co-sponsor deal, um, being selective of your partner. Yes, that's number one. Anything else come to mind that you'd say? These are some things that that maybe I would do differently the next time around.
Lupei Chou (00:05:24) - I think other than that, you want to have complementary skills. Um. Because people bring in different skill sets to a table, right? And sometimes, um, you just don't really have the skills, the right skill set mix. And it kind of makes, it makes property management very difficult because once you're closed and you are together for the next 3 to 5 years, so running the property and taking care of it and make sure it's profitable, um, it will be a lot easier when you have the right skill set, you know, a group of people.
Lupei Chou (00:06:00) - That's another thing we also learned.
Sam Wilson (00:06:03) - Absolutely. So you close your first project as a co-sponsor, your second project. Did did you do on your own or was that also as a co sponsorship model?
Lupei Chou (00:06:12) - We also did as a co-sponsor, but we were a lot more involved on the second time. Um, which is really, um, I think I didn't really understand a lot of the things when it comes to asset management. And I've learned a lot in that second project because we did have some issues with asset management and property management company. We fired a number of companies, um, and just trying to, you know, get that right. We're still working through some issues. But yeah.
Sam Wilson (00:06:48) - Is this is this asset harder in particular to manage? Was there something about the asset that has caused you guys to go through? So many different property managers.
Lupei Chou (00:07:01) - I think it's just a smaller asset. It's 60 units and certain companies, they don't really want to take on that property. Maybe too small for their portfolio.
Lupei Chou (00:07:12) - But, you know, it's yeah. So that's something I also realized. Okay, you know the size, right? The size matters.
Sam Wilson (00:07:21) - Yeah, No, it undoubtedly does. And that's and that's something that. Who was it I was talking to here recently? They were saying, oh we were talking to a lender. And he said, get get in front of the lenders in this particular asset class and really figure out what and how they underwrite and how they how they view deals, because that's going to give you a lot of color as to what you should be looking out for. And think the same thing maybe applies here where it's like, hey, there's, you know, 60 units. The the bigger shops don't want to deal with it.
Lupei Chou (00:07:53) - Yeah. So yeah, so that's being a challenge. I think the size is kind of like. Not too small, not too big. It's kind of in the middle. Um. Yeah. Um, but we are plugging away. We just continue, you know, Find what? Searching the right fit to, you know, help with the property management.
Sam Wilson (00:08:13) - Yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah. Because, I mean, that'll be a challenge When you get to a 60 unit property, it's like, well, you know, getting the, getting a competent property manager in there to, to run that for you could be could be potentially tough. Tell me tell me this you know you're still full time military, is that correct?
Lupei Chou (00:08:31) - I am. Yep.
Sam Wilson (00:08:32) - Wow. How do you balance your. Real estate investing with working full time.
Lupei Chou (00:08:40) - You know, so that really comes down to partnership. I do have two partners that we work very closely together and, um, you really just kind of like make sure all bases covered, you know, I, of course, you know, do things in the evenings and weekends and whatever I can do in the day. But really, I rely on my partners to, um, to take care of all the things.
Sam Wilson (00:09:08) - Mhm.
Lupei Chou (00:09:08) - Yeah.
Sam Wilson (00:09:09) - Okay. Very, very good. Any advice that you would give to people as they're looking to transition out of their job and get into real estate? Anything you'd give there as a as advice.
Lupei Chou (00:09:23) - So, you know, my background is military, you know, and of course, my approach is more on the conservative side. Right. I really think, you know, that transition is. Important to really make sure you're in a good place. I have seen people quit their jobs and ended up having to go back to their jobs or getting another job. Right. Because the real estate, especially as a new investors, it can be very unstable. A lot of ups and downs. Maybe you're making money this year, but, you know, that's not to, you know, to say you're going to make money next year. So, so so to me, I think it's important to make sure, you know, you have all the bills covered and, you know, like safety fund, all that stuff set up before quitting. It's very exciting, you know, And I have, um, mega money, you know, in deals and it make you almost make you think, Oh my God, I want to just quit.
Lupei Chou (00:10:27) - But yeah, be careful.
Sam Wilson (00:10:30) - Do it thoughtfully. Do it thoughtfully. Yeah, there's that's, there's absolutely some, some wisdom in that when looking forward, like looking to your future in real estate, what do you want that to look like and how do you plan on getting there?
Lupei Chou (00:10:45) - You know, I am I'm finishing up my military career here very soon, in the next year or two. At that point, I want to be fully devoted and focused on my business, the real estate, and just be more hands on and really learn the ins and outs. I mean, I feel like I'm learning now, but really not at the level I want to. So that's what I want to do and continue to grow the portfolio. And I'm very interested on development and maybe tap into that. That's my goal.
Sam Wilson (00:11:24) - I love it. I love it. Lupe. Thank you for taking the time Here to come on the show today. Certainly learned a lot from you. I loved hearing your entrance into commercial real estate and yeah, you've taken a similar journey to us all in that it's like.
Sam Wilson (00:11:38) - And I still have you. I do. I do still have some legacy single family stuff in my portfolio that just have not ever divested of. And I will tell you, it's always a little bit of a disappointment when the phone rings and you're like, Oh crap, now what?
Lupei Chou (00:11:52) - I get nervous when my property manager called me because there's no good news when he calls. Never.
Sam Wilson (00:11:59) - Never, No. And so I've actually taken the drastic kind of burned the boats route and have owner financed a lot of those properties off of the existing tenants. It's just like it's just the it's not worth the, the mental strain, you know, that it puts on where it's like, okay, like I don't, I don't have any desire. I don't care if I sell it for if at a minor loss, it's just got to go get out of my head. So clearly you've taken that transition from commercial or from single family and said, okay, we learned our lessons the hard way. Now we're going to go into commercial real estate.
Sam Wilson (00:12:36) - Doing the co-sponsor model in the beginning is a great way to learn, and it sounds like it's an iterative process, too, even for you. I think in that did your first project and the second one around, you've been way more involved and oh yeah, I love I love seeing that as we, you know, as you transition through that process and how you are scaling your commercial real estate holding. So certainly thank you for taking the time to come on the show today. If our listeners want to get in touch with you and learn more about you, what is the best way to do that?
Lupei Chou (00:13:01) - Yeah. So you can find me on LinkedIn. IG Facebook under my name. Lupe Chao. Um, our company page is Crown Capital. That's Crown Capital corp.com. Um, so check us out.
Sam Wilson (00:13:20) - Fantastic. That's Crown Capital Corp Corp. Crown Capital Corp, dot com. And Lupe Chalice. Lupe. I see you, Lupe. Thank you for taking the time to come on.
Lupei Chou (00:13:32) - Thank you so much, San.
Sam Wilson (00:13:33) - Thank you. Have a great rest.
Sam Wilson (00:13:34) - Of your day. Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen. If you can do that for.
Sam Wilson (00:13:48) - Us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories. So appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.
