Today let’s welcome Christine Hsu, Christine is a former R&D Product Research Scientist in the Food & Beverage Industry turned Real Estate Investor focusing on multifamily properties. Looking to connect with other active and passive investors, brokers, lenders, and professionals in the real estate industry. Let’s learn more about Christine’s journey, with no further ado let’s Dive in
[00:00 - 06:05] Former food scientist turns real estate investor,
- Christine Hsu is a former R&D food scientist and researcher turned real estate investor.
- She started with a Single-family rental and then very quickly scaled to multi-family.
- Alongside, she was investing as a limited partner and was doing rehabs and leasing
- She considers it a parallel path for food and real estate as it is a basic need for humans to have these commodities.
- She is currently doing larger deals.
[06:05 - 12:03] How to Scale Your Commercial Real Estate Portfolio
- Christine has faced challenges scaling its commercial real estate portfolio, including high-interest rates and volatility in the market.
- For Christine scaling is all about mindset, and, it revolves around setting goals and surrounding herself with people who are already successful in the industry.
- By learning from those who are already successful, Christine was able to scale their portfolio quickly and reach their goals.
[12:04 - 17:45] Surrounding yourself with successful people.
- Successful people are busy and don’t have enough time to do small talks
- But being a limited partner in their deals, Christine was able to take advantage of observing how they handle their deals.
- And if there are chances, she would utilize the time to ask them as many questions as she can to learn.
- Christine shared that during the pandemic when everything went virtual, she was able to connect to people in the industry.
- She adds that recently just by networking they were able to close a deal
- She shared that what changed her mindset was the book “Who Not How” by Dan Sulivan.
- For Christine, everybody is leveraging each other and it’s a team sport.
[17:06 - 19:28] Closing Segment
- Reach out to Christine Hsu
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- Links Below
- Final Words
Resource Mentioned:
Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork
Tweetable Quotes
“It's a team sport everyone's working together. So for me, it was leveraging people who had more experience than me to get me where I wanted to be, as opposed to just figuring out how to do it. It's just, finding the who's that can get me there.” - Christine Hsu
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Connect with Christine Hsu on LinkedIn and visit their website at noblivest.com
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Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
[00:00:40] Sam Wilson: Christine Hsu is a former R and D food scientist and researcher turned real estate investor. She started with a single family rental and then very quickly scaled to multi-family.
[00:00:49] Sam Wilson: Christine. Welcome to the
[00:00:50] Christine Hsu: show. Thank you so much, Sam, for having me. I'm excited to be here.
[00:00:54] Sam Wilson: Pleasure's mine. There's three questions. I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90 seconds or last, can you tell me, where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you
[00:01:01] Christine Hsu: get there? Yes. So I started my career as a food scientist, as you mentioned in the intro.
[00:01:08] Christine Hsu: And then wasn't feeling the corporate world. So went into real estate and brought me a lot of freedom for myself and my family. And, Now I'm moving into multifamily looking not just a multifamily, really commercial real estate and expanding and hopefully diversifying from from there.
[00:01:23] Sam Wilson: So got it.
[00:01:25] Sam Wilson: Now, what is a food scientist?
[00:01:27] Christine Hsu: So, if you go to the store on the shelves, there's a lot of manufactured foods behind all of that is the technical part of a food scientist that formulates those food products to make it scalable and can be mass produced. That's my background.
[00:01:42] Christine Hsu: There's a lot of engineering, biology, chemistry behind that. And yeah, so my specialty, when in my career was actually a sensory. So I studied how people perceived how they experienced food through their five senses and measured it through statistics and research. So it was really interesting.
[00:02:04] Sam Wilson: I'm sure. I'm sure it is. So you were part of the team responsible for making that awesome lime flavor on those todos lime chip. That probably has no lime in it. I'm assuming, but uh, certainly tastes like lime.
[00:02:17] Christine Hsu: Yeah. It has lime flavors that are extracted from actual limes, but they put it into a powder and they spray it onto the chips.
[00:02:24] Sam Wilson: Yes. That's just wild and crazy. I love it. Very cool. But you said, Hey, I'm not loving this, let's get into real estate. what gave you the real estate bug?
[00:02:33] Christine Hsu: Yeah, so, I mean, I loved what I did. I just didn't like the corporate culture and, Just being in a corporate environment, it felt a little bit to me like stifling.
[00:02:42] Christine Hsu: It was just you how to show up to work every day, eight to five, at least if not more, when you had projects that required more attention. And even on the slower days where there's less projects, you still had to show up eight to five. So, I feel like there wasn't as much flexibility and really what hit the nail on the head was when I had kids young kids, I was.
[00:03:01] Christine Hsu: I would rather be at home watching my, six month old play than be here and do this stuff. So , I decided actually I asked my stuff. I was like, well, what can I do where I can still replace my income, bring home Bring home income to my family, but still have that flexibility and landed on real estate.
[00:03:21] Christine Hsu: And actually a lot of arrows pointed to real estate as being an advantage, including tax benefits that also, brought a huge benefit to our family. So that's kind of how I landed
[00:03:30] Sam Wilson: there. How long did it take you to go from single family to multifamily?
[00:03:34] Christine Hsu: Yes. It took about, well, it was a little bit of both because when I became a single family investor, I did the birth strategy in parallel to that.
[00:03:44] Christine Hsu: I was also investing as a limited partner alongside all the active stuff that I was doing with rehabs and leasing and all that stuff. I had set aside money to put, to work on the. Passive side as a limited partner so that, that can make me money too. So it was two, it was a parallel path.
[00:04:00] Christine Hsu: I mean, I would say I was always involved in commercial and really I was had the intention of going that direction, but wanted to watch from the sidelines first to see the real, the big time experts how they run their show. And then it took about maybe a year. A year or two about a year and a half before I said, okay, I'm gonna go active into syndications in multifamily.
[00:04:22] Sam Wilson: Gotcha. That's that's really cool. I love that. Tell me, if you have a background in, measuring how people perceive and taste food, right? Like that's yeah. That's a very nuanced skill. What are some parallels you see in between what you learned as a food scientist, doing what you did there to, how you approach your multifamily investments.
[00:04:42] Sam Wilson: Are there any
[00:04:42] Christine Hsu: parallels? There are definitely parallels because I think both meet the basic need of human beings. You've got food and you've got shelter. And I like to focus on those, you invest in things that will change lives. I think that was something that I heard recently, a quote. And they are things that we need.
[00:05:00] Christine Hsu: So I feel like recently now I'm, I'm starting to raise some capital for some larger deals. It's all about meeting a need. And I feel like there are a lot of people out there who are, making decent incomes. They don't have time to be active investors, but they do wanna invest passively and all they know is the stock market.
[00:05:23] Christine Hsu: So no one's really told them that they have other opportunities beyond that in alternative assets. And. I've met a lot of investors where, it's the need that's already inside of them. I said, Hey, look, you can invest in real estate and have all the advantages of real estate. And do it passively while you focus on your career still and not have to be so hands on, you don't have to be flipping houses.
[00:05:43] Christine Hsu: And changing out toilets, you can do this on the side and still get really great returns. And I've had a lot of investors. Convert to being at an LP very, very quickly and just, a couple of meetings. These are people that I know personally who ask, what are you doing now?
[00:05:59] Christine Hsu: And I tell them, I invest in real estate and I actually allow others to invest with me. And they're like, oh yeah, tell me more. So I feel like there's some parallels there because there's a need that is being met. Whether it's. Food housing, or just having additional investment opportunities to bring in passive income and even bring wealth generational wealth and a legacy to their families.
[00:06:23] Sam Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. What are some challenges that you have faced in scaling a commercial real estate portfolio?
[00:06:30] Christine Hsu: well I think I started in 2020 and the real estate world has seen a lot of. Very high ups and now we're kind of going on the downside. I, some of the challenges I face is just. The volatility of the market.
[00:06:47] Christine Hsu: Just in the time that I started and I wouldn't say it's a challenge, you kind of just go with the flow. It's almost like you're in the Rocky rapids, like choppy rapids of the waters. You kind of just have to, clinging on and go with the waves. And so really, there's things that I feel like is a little bit.
[00:07:06] Christine Hsu: Stable. Although real estate is still very stable asset, but just the ups and downs. It's been a little bit challenging for me. someone who started newer to kind of keep track of it, but it's also exciting too, because I get to see a lot happening. And really even. When the world is concerned, that's the best time is there's always opportunity in those kind of Rocky moments.
[00:07:29] Christine Hsu: So I'm excited to be a part of it. And really it's all about making sure that you're taking measured risks with contingency. And building that into all of the underwriting.
[00:07:39] Sam Wilson: When you say measured risk with contingency what is, what comes to mind when you say that.
[00:07:43] Christine Hsu: so, the interest rates are going up substantially and very quickly.
[00:07:48] Christine Hsu: So it's making sure that the numbers are writing in higher interest rates and having that sensitivity analyzer, really Making sure. If it goes like extremely high to like maybe 9%, 10%, what would that look like? And just being prepared for any scenario that happens. Like, I don't think that's going to happen really just based on historical data, but you know, if it does, you never know, it's like no one has that crystal ball.
[00:08:14] Christine Hsu: But you have to be prepared for some, for something like that.
[00:08:17] Sam Wilson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Tell me about when I say the words, how to scale, like, what advice would you give to somebody. Or what advice would you give to yourself two or three years ago that you would say, Hey, this is what I would do.
[00:08:29] Sam Wilson: If I wanted to grow my commercial real estate portfolio as an active investor, what would you say?
[00:08:35] Christine Hsu: Yeah. So for me, actually it's a little bit different. It's about mindset. Scaling is all about mindset. And for me, I have to sit down and be like, well, why do I want to scale? what is my goal at the end of the day?
[00:08:47] Christine Hsu: So I really looked at those goals and kind of work back. And scaled, according to what that end goal is. So it could be anything like, okay, for myself and my family, I wanna cash flow $10,000 a month. Or I want to expand my portfolio to, a thousand units or 500 million dollars of real estate on assets, under management.
[00:09:08] Christine Hsu: These are just goals. And I feel like once you have the final destination in sight, you can work backwards to really. Define what those milestones are. to get to that end goal. So for me, it's all scaling is all about mindset. I think it's easy to just, keep going, but really not know where you're going or I'm speaking for myself.
[00:09:30] Christine Hsu: So I really had to be very clear on what that end goal
[00:09:33] Sam Wilson: was. Got it. I love that when you set that end goal. So, so now you determined your, why was there anything inside of you that said that's not possible or I that's for somebody else? Not me.
[00:09:46] Christine Hsu: Oh, of course. I mean, Limiting beliefs are just, it's natural.
[00:09:50] Christine Hsu: We always have them. And I definitely did. But I feel like for me, it's like surrounding myself with people who are already there. Really helps me get there to say, I, yeah, it's daunting. I might just be starting out or new, newer in the business, but if they can do it and they're alongside kind of helping out and I'm asking them for advice, I could get there too.
[00:10:14] Christine Hsu: And probably in a similar timeframe. Cause I've been surrounded by so many people, just really talented, smart people who have gotten to. Goals in just a few years and I'm like, wow, how do they do it? And so it's just not being shy and really reaching out to them being like, Hey, how can I bring you value?
[00:10:33] Christine Hsu: And how can I just learn from you
[00:10:35] Sam Wilson: too? Right. And that was my next question. How did you go and surround yourself with people? Just put a flag out. That's, I want myself with really cool, smart people that are. Picking button taking names in real estate. Obviously it's not
[00:10:46] Christine Hsu: what you did.
[00:10:47] Christine Hsu: What did you, yeah, no, I wish it was that easy, but these people don't have a lot of time to, you know, to talk to you if you just put out a flag. So for me as I mentioned earlier, I started off being a limited partner in their deals. Even if I didn't have a lot of one-on-one time to ask them like, small, silly questions, I just watched, I observed what they did, how they handled their business.
[00:11:10] Christine Hsu: How they acquired real estate, how they work with their investors and learn from that. And of course, they have people on their team to, that are available, their investor relations team. You can ask them as many questions as you want. I feel like they're an open door because essentially they have to be so, just utilizing their resources that are available for their investors being one of their investors in learning from them was the easiest way that.
[00:11:34] Christine Hsu: I was learning from them and
[00:11:35] Sam Wilson: observing. Yeah. And it's funny you and I took a similar path on, on, to, to that. I CA I came into commercial real estate, like you did first as limited partner. Yeah. And I recommended that countless times of people, like, what would, what's the first thing you'd do was like, well, if you have the capital.
[00:11:50] Sam Wilson: even if it's just 50 grand in one deal, mm-hmm, do that. Get a front row seat and see how someone else already in the industry is handling their business, how they put out their deal, decks, how they communicate, how they do webinars, how often they give, quarterly updates. If they do live calls, like what is their process and get a feel.
[00:12:07] Sam Wilson: And you might find things in their process that are broken. You might be like, oh, I can do that better. If I become an active sponsor or that's a really cool thing, they did. Let me see if I can duplicate that. So that's I think that's really cool. After you were a limited partner, what did you do next?
[00:12:20] Christine Hsu: Then it was a lot of networking. It was joining, meetup calls thanks to zoom. And even with the pandemic, everything went virtual. So everything is pretty much available. In LinkedIn, I was very active on LinkedIn. Really. If you're connected with one person you're connected with almost everyone in this industry.
[00:12:38] Christine Hsu: So really just, reaching out to people that way through those channels, seeing if they have meetup groups online, that meet and then going from there once. In a meetup group and network there, then you meet so many others and it just keeps going. It's it's endless in terms of the possibilities of the people that you meet.
[00:12:56] Christine Hsu: And then they become very close friends and part potential partners, too. And so that, that was kind of how I expanded my learnings and skilled really my network in real estate.
[00:13:06] Sam Wilson: How'd you get your first deal done?
[00:13:09] Christine Hsu: First real estate deal or first,
[00:13:12] Sam Wilson: first commercial deal, first commercial real estate
[00:13:14] Christine Hsu: deal.
[00:13:15] Christine Hsu: Yes. So that was actually recent. We only just closed a month or so ago and it was through networking. I had met this This operator probably over a year ago, about a year and a half ago at a conference. And just kept in touch with her. And it was. So the lead sponsors, there's a couple groups, but one of the main lead sponsors is an all female group.
[00:13:40] Christine Hsu: And so obviously we bonded being females in this industry and we just kept in touch. Like every quarter we would check in to see how we're doing, and if there's anything that we can help each other with almost became like pseudo accountability partners even. And then she she and her team had an opportunity that they were.
[00:13:57] Christine Hsu: Under contract for, and also raising funds. And that I said, Hey, I'd be happy to help you out and raise some money with you and join your team and also help with other activities, anything that you need help with. So that's, that was the first deal that I joined as a co GP on. And, it's been great. And even from there, other team members and connecting with them kind of just expanded my network and my knowledge too. No,
[00:14:22] Sam Wilson: that's really cool. I love that. And again, it goes back to those relationships. I think that you've been building, a year it's a good amount of time to know somebody, but it does take sometimes years, to where like, Hey, I actually.
[00:14:33] Sam Wilson: We've known each other for a long time. Let's see if there's a chance for us to work together on something. So that's really fantastic. We're there. And I love the fact that this was just your first deal you got across the finish line. Cause this is very fresh for you. Yes, we'd get, we get all sorts of guests on this podcast or we get everybody from, you, Hey, I just closed my first commercial deal a month ago to, somebody else that might be like, Hey, I've got 3 billion in assets, under management.
[00:14:56] Sam Wilson: I mean, they're all on here. So I love that we get to explore kind of both sides of this. journey. Tell me, was there, are there things that you would do differently on your next deal that you said, Hey, this is the lesson I learned. I'm gonna do it differently next time.
[00:15:08] Sam Wilson: And then if so, why?
[00:15:09] Christine Hsu: Yeah. I mean for us, we are just growing our networks, we're growing our investor list. And I think for the next deal, like we're growing and expanding our deals as well. So this first deal was a 5 0 6 B. We've done a couple others also in parallel. And now we're moving into the world of 5 0 6 CS where we can advertise.
[00:15:32] Christine Hsu: So I. Think that, I would really do anything differently per se. I think it's just a journey and a progression. But definitely in terms of learning, it's there's some things that I could do better in terms of investor relations and even the process just to improve on, the entire process and the experience for investors going forward.
[00:15:49] Christine Hsu: And I feel like with every deal you learn a little bit of something
[00:15:52] new
[00:15:52] Sam Wilson: Yeah. Absolutely. Is there a software, is there a platform, is there something that you are using when you're bringing investors on that you would recommend?
[00:16:01] Christine Hsu: Yes. So, For most of my deals, they've been syndication pro it's been a very user friendly platform.
[00:16:09] Christine Hsu: It's, aesthetically pleasing for both sides on the sponsor side and the, on the investor side, just to see everything clearly you can see your distributions whatever documents are housed, there is just very clean. And then we're also exploring with another group invest next. So just kind of comparing the different platforms.
[00:16:29] Christine Hsu: I wouldn't say I have a lot of experience with invest next cause we're just starting out. But it's nice to kind of see, compare and contrast the different tools that are out there.
[00:16:37] Sam Wilson: Absolutely. Absolutely. No, and that's great. I think it's one of the things that is, if you're listening to this and you don't.
[00:16:43] Sam Wilson: And I'm not, we're not rec recommending one or another necessarily on this show, but if you don't have an investor platform, you gotta get one. I mean, it's something that, just, it really ups your game. They're not terribly expensive. Not com not relative compared to, the types of assets we're buying.
[00:16:59] Sam Wilson: It's not an expensive investment. So that's certainly a cool thing. I'm glad really, to hear out of the gate you were launching launching with a good platform there. That's so cool. Last question for you. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners that you can think of?
[00:17:12] Sam Wilson: You're like, Hey, here's something that has been meaningful to me in the last, I guess two years or so of your commercial real estate journey.
[00:17:19] Christine Hsu: Yes, absolutely. For me, Just starting out in real estate. It looks, it seems like a very daunting thing, especially if, as you see everyone skilling at a hundred miles an hour and you're kind of a newbie like that was me.
[00:17:31] Christine Hsu: Right. I'm just like, how did these people do it? And really what changed my mindset and perspective was the book called who not how so. It's very popular in our space. I think a lot of people recommend that book and I do as well. It's a whole mindset shift. It's not about how to do something because we're so limited in our knowledge I've I was very limited.
[00:17:52] Christine Hsu: I didn't have the experience obviously, but leveraging people who do. So I feel like in syndications, the big keyword is leverage, right? Everyone's leveraging each other. It's a team sport everyone's working together. So for me, it was leveraging people who had more experience than me to get me where I wanted to be, as opposed to just figuring out how to do it.
[00:18:14] Christine Hsu: It's just, finding the who's that can get me there.
[00:18:17] Sam Wilson: I love it. Absolutely love it. Christine, thank you for taking the time to come on today. Certainly appreciate it. This was lots of fun. Learning about you, your journey thus far, getting your first deal done. Yeah. Kudos to you. Keep up to good work.
[00:18:29] Sam Wilson: If our listeners wanna get in touch with you and learn more about you and what it is you're doing, what is the best way to do that? Yes.
[00:18:34] Christine Hsu: You can check us out on our website at noblivest.com and also I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn really looking forward to connecting with all of you.
[00:18:45] Christine Hsu: Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or just wanna network. I'm always open to that.
[00:18:51] Sam Wilson: Awesome. And noble vest is N O B L I V E S T. If you're just listening to this, we will, of course include this all in the show notes as well. Christine, thank you so much. Do
[00:19:01] Christine Hsu: appreciate. Awesome. Thank you so much, Sam.
