Igor Shaltanov, founder and managing partner of Avista Fund, transitioned from professional athletics to successful entrepreneurship and real estate investment in Southern California. Since 2015, Avista Fund has focused on raising capital and investing in income-generating multifamily properties, with a mission to provide investors with access to US real estate. With over 3,050 multifamily units valued at $483.5MM, Avista Fund prioritizes conservative underwriting and meticulous due diligence, delivering value to investors and communities alike through a values-driven approach.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- Igor’s Immigration From Russia To The US
- Why He Decided Not To Go Back To Russia
- A Quick “Seminar” In The Stock Market
- How To Align Yourself With a Partner
- What to Look For In a Partner
- Igor’s First Real Estate Deal & The Lesson Learned
- Investing In California (Don’t Do It)
- Lessons In Self Storage
- The Importance Of a Healthy Mindset
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
Full Transcript Below
00:00:19:27 – 00:00:45:15
Rod
Welcome to another edition of Life Time Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing. I’m Rod Cliff and I am thrilled you’re here. And today we have Igor Shelton off and Igor is from Russia, as evidenced by the name Igor. And we’ve had a nice little pre chat here about Russia and my some of my experiences in Russia. But we’re going to have a wide ranging conversation, mostly about raising money, which is of course, is really important right now.
00:00:45:15 – 00:00:46:29
Rod
Igor. Welcome to the show, brother.
00:00:47:02 – 00:00:52:16
Igor
Thank you. Thank you, Rod. Then it’s my honor to be on the show and I would love to share as much as I can with people. Thank you.
00:00:52:19 – 00:01:06:29
Rod
You bet. Again, I’m glad you’re here. Well, so why don’t you? You’re a former professional athlete. I dying to hear about that. So. So tell us your story and what you did previously and why real estate and just the whole shebang.
00:01:06:29 – 00:01:32:28
Igor
Yeah, I will. So and I’m always thinking how far go back. I want to, you know, and go with my story, but I want to go back to Russia. Right. This in 1995, let’s say or so. And that’s a tough times because we’re still civil war. Right. And civil unrest right outside. And then my dad was a police officer and my mom was a doctor.
00:01:32:28 – 00:01:33:25
Igor
So. And the.
00:01:33:27 – 00:01:35:09
Rod
Moscow. St Petersburg.
00:01:35:09 – 00:01:47:06
Igor
Moscow, Moscow. It was yeah, it was a moscow. And then I, I wouldn’t say I didn’t know if my dad comes back home. It was like the tough times to the point. So you.
00:01:47:12 – 00:01:49:08
Rod
You were worried about him making it back? Yeah.
00:01:49:08 – 00:02:05:14
Igor
Well, yeah, I was worried about me. He came back and I didn’t really understand the scope of the thing because I was still pretty young. But then it was a big, big deal, right? And then every time the news comes up, you want to make sure you see what’s going on. And then like, who’s bombarding what we’re shooting and blah, blah, blah.
00:02:05:17 – 00:02:31:07
Igor
So anyways, what I’m talking about in my story, my story comes from there because it was the space. When there’s no business, there’s no education, right? There’s no financial background. So it was really relying on, I’ll get my mom and my dad and what they work for, right. And what they’re going to bring home. And then it was tough times as well because there’s nothing you can buy just to feed the family.
00:02:31:10 – 00:02:53:25
Igor
So basically the story from there to where I am right now, it just it’s been a big progression for myself and was like huge piece of it was the internal development rate. So how you actually learn what type of people you’re talking to and then what do you want to be 20 years from now? Right? And there was a huge and then.
00:02:53:28 – 00:02:59:02
Rod
So it’s like that. Let me back you up for one second. So did did your parents emigrate or did you come over by yourself? I was.
00:02:59:02 – 00:03:00:01
Igor
But it was me.
00:03:00:01 – 00:03:02:05
Rod
Just you. And you came over when.
00:03:02:08 – 00:03:06:16
Igor
I came in 2009 was does he get back home?
00:03:06:18 – 00:03:13:21
Rod
he was going to stay just to test it. To test it. Okay. And so are your parents still in Russia?
00:03:13:24 – 00:03:23:21
Igor
My parents still in Russia and my sister in St Petersburg. Okay, but then back to this story. So you ask me. So I. I saw this sport is the only way for me to get out.
00:03:23:23 – 00:03:24:02
Rod
Are.
00:03:24:09 – 00:03:37:28
Igor
So by the focus in my mind on one thing. And that time was sport and that was my first life because I have a bunch of lies. I’m just joking, right? So my first I was a sportsman, so I just playing professional sports.
00:03:38:01 – 00:03:38:19
Rod
What sport?
00:03:38:26 – 00:04:08:18
Igor
It was water polo. So. Wow. And then back then, so it the water polo. It’s not a huge sport. Right. But it’s a really tough sport. You water all the time and then all you need to do, just focus on your mind, on how to get better every single day. So and then coming through all the obstacles that was traveling about one one hour and 15 minutes on the subway ride to get to the practice by myself at the age of 13, I started at 13 and coming back and then I was coming back maybe 11 p.m., right.
00:04:08:21 – 00:04:31:23
Igor
So and then going to Bat week and I go to school and there was about five, five or six days a week right? And then that was my first life, the second life. So when I surf Army and then I stopped playing sports after a while I said, What can I do to really earn money, right? And my first education was teacher and coach.
00:04:31:25 – 00:04:34:29
Igor
And I really love working with kids.
00:04:35:01 – 00:04:35:11
Rod
Sure.
00:04:35:18 – 00:04:53:01
Igor
So I start to connect to kids, I start to work with kids. And then I did internship in the schools so knows me and that’s heaven. I don’t even work. So but then I said, Listen, but I can not feed my family because the PE teacher makes $50 a month. Right? Right. You’re not going to be able to get whatever you want to get right then, right?
00:04:53:03 – 00:04:55:05
Igor
Especially after a professional degree playing sports.
00:04:55:06 – 00:05:04:17
Rod
By the way, guys, he’s in over 3000 doors, so hang in there. Okay. So we’re going to get into all that. But anyway, so so so were you married at the time or. No? No.
00:05:04:19 – 00:05:24:18
Igor
Okay, not yet. So and then just again, let’s fast forward my story a little bit. Right? The second was I went to the law school. I was in school because my dad was policeman and I saw a lot of things about the law and Right. And being around the law. And he was officer he was not the actual patrol guy.
00:05:24:18 – 00:05:34:07
Igor
He was actually working at the office and went through what law school, right. Start to work as assistant judge and the Court.
00:05:34:14 – 00:05:34:21
Rod
00:05:34:26 – 00:05:53:01
Igor
And then I was like, wow, But it’s not about the law. It’s not about protecting people. It’s a little different. And I didn’t like that. And for a year, working of the card at the court, I was miserable. Right. Because people come up to you and and say, how much money do you need to influence that or this and that and a lot of bribery.
00:05:53:03 – 00:05:53:21
Rod
Wow.
00:05:53:22 – 00:06:12:21
Igor
And then that same time, my, she was my girlfriend. We had the first child and he was born here in the United States. I was still working as assistant. Right. And then the my kid, my first kid was born there. So and then I was like, do I want to teach my kids to leave the life like that?
00:06:12:21 – 00:06:38:24
Igor
Or do I want to give them the rules? So which is system again created for them? And I said no. And then and basically what I did is I quit my job as a court. And then my wife asked me, That’s back stories. So my wife brother that same time was drafted by NBA team and he to Los Angeles and it was Los Angeles Clippers 2005.
00:06:38:26 – 00:06:51:09
Igor
And then my wife saying to me, So do you want to be in the in Russia? Do you want to come? And just in November. So November, it’s really, really cold. And she said, Do you want to come and visit my family? We’re going to check it out. How the people.
00:06:51:09 – 00:06:51:23
Rod
In L.A..
00:06:51:29 – 00:07:10:12
Igor
It’s beautiful, the weather. So I said, okay, you know what? That’s not a bad idea. Let’s do that. And actually, we just finished building house. So again, the Russia system C don’t mortgage anything. It’s all cash. So we have in the good life, we don’t need to leave anywhere, right? So it’s all paid off.
00:07:10:12 – 00:07:12:01
Rod
We got we in Russia.
00:07:12:03 – 00:07:19:26
Igor
In Russia, Yeah. Okay. And then she’s giving me okay she’s, she’s saying, so let’s go visit my family because I’m kind of, you know, I want to see them. And she’s.
00:07:19:26 – 00:07:20:23
Rod
American.
00:07:20:25 – 00:07:21:29
Igor
Now. She’s she’s Russian.
00:07:22:01 – 00:07:24:29
Rod
She’s Russian, but her family’s over here. She got it. Was trying to track you here.
00:07:24:29 – 00:07:44:00
Igor
Okay? Yeah, she’s trying to track me. And then so what happened is. So we go in Los Angeles, and I land in Los Angeles in November, and people in shirts and t shirts and everybody’s smiling. And we’re Manhattan Beach, and it’s a beautiful neighborhood. And then we’re walking by the beach and everybody’s happy.
00:07:44:02 – 00:07:47:03
Rod
You don’t have that in Russia. Yeah, Manhattan Beach is gorgeous.
00:07:47:03 – 00:07:59:10
Igor
Yeah, I was like, People can live like that, right? that’s alive. that’s a real life, right? You don’t need to suffer, right? You don’t need to, you know, experience certain things. You can make a choice.
00:07:59:12 – 00:08:14:15
Rod
So, you know, it’s funny. I was just telling Igor when before we started recording that I went to the Hermitage Museum in Russia, which is probably one of the largest museums in the world. They say it would take three years. Or is it a full year? I can’t remember. If you look at every item, there’s 3 million items.
00:08:14:15 – 00:08:31:07
Rod
It would take like a full year to see them all. But but I made a joke because they have an old woman in every room that protects that room. And I was I decided I was going to try to make one of them smile because they’re very stern looking literally 35, 40 women. I couldn’t get a single one of them to smile.
00:08:31:09 – 00:08:37:05
Rod
So anyway, just as an aside, all right, Please, please continue. So you’re in L.A. You’re like, holy crap, this is amazing.
00:08:37:11 – 00:08:38:16
Igor
my goodness. So I was.
00:08:38:16 – 00:08:39:13
Rod
Shot. So what happened?
00:08:39:15 – 00:08:52:25
Igor
We have a dinner, right? It’s the round table. I still remember as of today, dinner roundtable, and then our manager of the family, she said she asked one question which just struck me to the bones. Right. She said, Why are you guys coming back?
00:08:52:27 – 00:08:56:14
Rod
When or why? Why? Why are you coming back? You mean going back to Russia?
00:08:56:14 – 00:09:12:16
Igor
Why are you going back to Russia? I got it because I told her we have a ticket right now, right to go back. We just came in and we have to get back. So it’s going to be, let’s say, December, January or so. And then when she asked me that question, so I was like and I was like, why do I come back?
00:09:12:19 – 00:09:34:10
Igor
Do I come back to have my apartment like a house or but it doesn’t matter. I was like, it does not matter. It’s all tangible things, but reality is So there is no opportunity for my kids, there’s no opportunity for my family. And then so that’s how my second life began. Okay, So we opened the business. We said, You.
00:09:34:10 – 00:09:37:13
Rod
Opened a business in L.A.? Yes. What kind of business?
00:09:37:15 – 00:09:38:29
Igor
It was basketball academy. Forget.
00:09:38:29 – 00:09:39:08
Rod
Okay.
00:09:39:08 – 00:09:41:08
Igor
Basketball camp. I’m going to. Can that. All right, All.
00:09:41:08 – 00:09:41:26
Rod
Right, all right, All right.
00:09:42:03 – 00:10:04:15
Igor
So basically, we said okay, from the I think it was December or so from December until March. So I called my mom in December after that meeting. So and said, listen, I’m not coming back. And she was crying. It was heartbreaking for her because you know, she understand she doesn’t she’s not going to see the, you know, the kids and then she’s not going to see us as much.
00:10:04:18 – 00:10:15:22
Igor
But I said, that’s fine. So we’re going establish ourselves. We’ll come, you know, you could you can come to us. We’ll come to you. So it’s not a big deal. So and then from December to March, we in March, we basically got the green cards.
00:10:15:24 – 00:10:16:08
Rod
Nice.
00:10:16:10 – 00:10:31:22
Igor
We made it official. Right. And we opened the academy, basketball academy. And then the remember I said, I really love working with kids. Right? But I went to law school and I went to law work and they hated every single day, right? So I finally connect my passion.
00:10:31:25 – 00:10:32:23
Rod
Which is to the.
00:10:32:23 – 00:10:33:11
Igor
Business.
00:10:33:11 – 00:10:35:13
Rod
How did you connect law with basketball now?
00:10:35:16 – 00:10:47:06
Igor
So I started to teach kids that remember I said I went to a PE teacher in Russia. So and once I get into coaching, I was not working. It was such a joy.
00:10:47:06 – 00:10:49:20
Rod
It was. And you love what you do. Work is play. You don’t work in other.
00:10:49:20 – 00:11:11:05
Igor
That’s it. I was like, man, I mean, heaven rates for five years. Building the business. I was really joyous, joyful, right. And I really enjoy every single day, every single kid, every single interaction. Right. This is that So basically that business because people feel it. The thing is, people are going to feel what’s seen terminal attention. You can hide it, you can mask it.
00:11:11:05 – 00:11:14:20
Igor
But if they feel it, they start to spread the word and then business.
00:11:14:26 – 00:11:24:19
Rod
If they feel how happy you are. You mean? Yes. They feel that you really love what you do. You’re good at it and your passion, it really it’s the passion. When you love what you do, you’re passionate. People want to be around that.
00:11:24:21 – 00:11:37:00
Igor
For sure, and they translate it because. Because you translate the internal feeling to that child. Right. And the child a child feels empowered right? Then he doing a lot better right then he’s grow in his skill set is growing.
00:11:37:02 – 00:11:37:14
Rod
So like a.
00:11:37:14 – 00:11:57:05
Igor
Coaching program, what you guys are doing right? Exactly the same idea. Right. So so what happened is so we opened one location, we open two, three, four, five. At certain points, we opened nine different locations in Los Angeles. Wow. And then we became number one again. So I was again, I was a national team player and water polo.
00:11:57:08 – 00:12:26:28
Igor
I was top athlete of my country. Well, there’s no like higher position in water. Polo was number one. Well, number two, three. Right. And then when I start to when I start to be the lawyer, because it’s not my passion, I dropped that things and they shifted right. And I became the business. So when we opened the basketball academy for kids, we became number one Academy in Los Angeles, one of the biggest locations wise and the people wise, we had 500 people right at points.
00:12:27:00 – 00:12:28:26
Rod
500 employees or 500 and.
00:12:28:29 – 00:12:30:29
Igor
500 students like our.
00:12:31:00 – 00:12:31:15
Rod
School.
00:12:31:15 – 00:12:54:18
Igor
Very nice. Everybody’s happy and they give you feedback and it’s growing and growing. So what I’m saying is from there I start to treat it as a business. Okay, what are the KPIs, What are the employees, what’s the payroll ratio? So all of that pushed me into the all the, you know, the business community, right? The business masterminds, the business mindset, master mindset.
00:12:54:19 – 00:12:59:03
Rod
So you went to masterminds to enhance your skills all the time. Good for you. But same here.
00:12:59:05 – 00:13:18:12
Igor
Learning and digest in as much as I can on your business side. Yeah. How to run proper business and how to become successful business and how to scale it. Yeah, so but, but the thing is I would say the industry, right? It’s a youth sports.
00:13:18:14 – 00:13:19:06
Rod
It’s youth sports.
00:13:19:06 – 00:13:28:00
Igor
How big can you get? Right. That was my problem. Yeah. So my internal capacity was a lot bigger, right? And I want to get more.
00:13:28:00 – 00:13:28:29
Rod
It wasn’t enough.
00:13:29:02 – 00:13:48:04
Igor
Yeah. Yeah, it was enough for me. But then, you know, my wife is professional basketball player. she is. And she was my partner. Yeah, my wife is my partner. Okay. Obviously, she’s even better than me as a business lady. And then I said at one point, So that’s one my I would see the third life start to become.
00:13:48:04 – 00:13:58:23
Igor
Right. We need to invest the money because we start to get more money when we can spend, sure. But we need to spend. And we were always like a frugal coming from Russia.
00:13:59:00 – 00:14:02:05
Rod
Sure didn’t you didn’t blow it. You didn’t buy the Rolls-Royces.
00:14:02:06 – 00:14:26:03
Igor
Rolls-Royce and things like that. So we were like very frugal at certain point. So and, and I start to explore different things. So my, my Russian lessons became in 2000, let’s see, five or six, I would say. And then when I sold first property and I got chunk of money because again, remember, there’s no loan, right? There’s no leverage, right?
00:14:26:03 – 00:14:41:13
Igor
It’s all cash, right? So when I sold it, I was like, would I do what I do with money, what I do in America with the money? Right. Right. And there was two couple of choices, right? One was everybody’s talking about the stocks and then we need to go to the stock market. And I’m going to the gym.
00:14:41:13 – 00:14:57:28
Igor
Right. Was a nice guy. His name is David, I would say. And then he was a teacher from New York, retired a lot of his money into the stock market that I didn’t know who to ask right about money of that much. And I said, David, what do you do with the money? And he said, I have a really good broker.
00:14:58:00 – 00:15:17:16
Igor
Broker, Broker. Yeah. And he’s he’s going to give you advice, right? He’s going to take your money. He’s going to invest in your behalf. I said, this is a really appealing story. That’s interesting. Let’s do it. So and his name is Kyle. I go to Kyle of Kyle. Can you please place 300 grand? Whatever. Whatever you feel like he says.
00:15:17:17 – 00:15:35:14
Igor
What is your risk tolerance? I said, It’s got to be less risky, more like a steady rate than I want to get. Let’s say five, 10% return is I’ll do it. That’s fine. And then after a year, I’m coming to my statements. And then sure enough, the only person who made money was Kyle.
00:15:35:14 – 00:15:36:18
Rod
Yeah, that’s the way it works.
00:15:36:23 – 00:15:37:11
Igor
And I was like.
00:15:37:12 – 00:15:51:17
Rod
What’s going on? Well, I’ll tell you what’s going on. Kyle’s great at sales. He’s not great at picking stocks. And that’s the freaking problem is most brokers are salespeople, and so. Well, you got to sit. You had a seminar? Yeah, that’s. We call it a seminar here. It’s not a failure. It’s a seminar.
00:15:51:19 – 00:15:57:03
Igor
Absolutely. Yeah. So and that was my first experience, you know, touching the stock market that’s in the market.
00:15:57:03 – 00:15:58:24
Rod
So why don’t you get into real estate?
00:15:58:26 – 00:16:17:14
Igor
So I still own a bunch of units, right in Russia. Back then, when I talked to Kyle and then I compare it to, I think sales, like, okay, I got income coming in from my real estate and I got appreciation at the end of the in Russia. Yes. And I got and I got the statement from the you know, it was Ameriprise Financial.
00:16:17:14 – 00:16:21:29
Igor
So and I got a statement. I said, okay, let’s look which one is doing better. It was like, no brainer, right?
00:16:22:00 – 00:16:23:12
Rod
The real estate’s much, much better.
00:16:23:14 – 00:16:38:09
Igor
And I was like, my goodness, I should probably look at different things, right? But not at the stocks, not the financial papers and stuff. Let’s look at the real estate closer. What can you do in real estate? Okay, I’m buying the first house in the U.S., so I’m flipping out.
00:16:38:11 – 00:16:39:23
Rod
It was. You bought a house in L.A.?
00:16:39:27 – 00:16:55:29
Igor
Yeah, I bought a house in L.A.. All right. And. And there was two choices. I buy it for myself or I buy it as an investment. Right. And then again, now I’m talking about my family and the mindset. And my family is saying, So you got to buy the place for yourself. You got to buy the place for yourself.
00:16:56:02 – 00:17:09:10
Igor
And I was like, okay, okay. So it sounds a little, little methodical, right? I would say it’s it’s coming from generations. Is that really financial decision or it’s emotional decision? It’s like more like, would.
00:17:09:13 – 00:17:10:12
Rod
You know the answer other.
00:17:10:12 – 00:17:27:29
Igor
People are doing right Then what’s everybody is doing? And I put both on scales on the spreadsheet. So and then I said, you know what? And actually I was touring like multiple houses to buy it for myself. And it took me about couple of months to really shift my mind. So and I start to listen for bigger pockets back then.
00:17:28:02 – 00:17:53:23
Igor
But the real estate, financial education and then what? What can you do? What strategies can you deal with single family houses and stuff? So again, by that point I only owned just a single unit apartments, houses, whatever, but not the, you know, the multiple buildings, buildings or multiple, you know, it not multifamily. So anyways, and then I bought a house, I remodel that house, things things got.
00:17:53:23 – 00:18:08:22
Igor
I didn’t buy it for myself and leave there because it’s become your liability. Right? My asset and I bought an asset which is cash flow and, and I brought it up to this beat rate to the market rents and then I rent it to the people. And, and this was my first experience in U.S..
00:18:08:22 – 00:18:11:05
Rod
Was it a positive experience?
00:18:11:07 – 00:18:22:16
Igor
It was a different story, right? It was like I was serving the note. I was like kicking out the tenants at. So again, it was positive experience at the end because I sold it and I profit out of the house. Okay.
00:18:22:18 – 00:18:23:12
Rod
And you learned a lot.
00:18:23:12 – 00:18:36:08
Igor
Tough, tough, managed management piece, right? So it was a lot of management. If my aversion experience was you rent the place and they never call you my US experience start to become they call you every single day, right, because of something.
00:18:36:10 – 00:18:37:22
Rod
Toilets and tenants. Yeah.
00:18:37:29 – 00:18:47:13
Igor
Yeah. So and then from there, so I own, let’s say seven units of this point rate and then houses it was apartments and then that one.
00:18:47:13 – 00:18:48:24
Rod
House in Russia.
00:18:48:24 – 00:18:49:28
Igor
Or.
00:18:50:01 – 00:18:51:00
Rod
Russia. Okay. Yeah.
00:18:51:00 – 00:19:11:18
Igor
And Russia. Yeah. And then the house was in the USA and I was like, I’m at the tipping point. What should a scale which because I need to bring the capital from Russia and scale my business and something. Okay? And then I start to extra place if I own 20 houses like that and I got 2010 and 20 toilets, what’s the life is going to be looking like?
00:19:11:18 – 00:19:19:06
Igor
Right. Right. And then you leverage yourself right? That’s not cash money, right? And you can’t get $20 million in a single family house. It’s not the best.
00:19:19:12 – 00:19:22:15
Rod
And you don’t have a life and you don’t have a life with 20 houses, right?
00:19:22:22 – 00:19:25:06
Igor
You become just a simple property management company.
00:19:25:06 – 00:19:28:19
Rod
So I want to hear about the epiphany. Yeah, because you had an epiphany at some point here.
00:19:28:24 – 00:19:32:13
Igor
So the epiphany was, I’m going to my friend house.
00:19:32:16 – 00:19:33:05
Rod
00:19:33:07 – 00:19:52:08
Igor
And then he’s saying there’s a guy who came from Saint Saint Petersburg. Okay, do you want to meet with them? And they came in and they going to go back home. I said of course I’m going to show up. Right? And then it was maybe 5 minutes from my house. So we go to my friend house and I’m meeting my partner, my future partner.
00:19:52:13 – 00:19:53:07
Rod
no kidding. He was there.
00:19:53:09 – 00:20:13:07
Igor
So. Yeah. And then his name is Nikita. And then I’m coming in and I say, Man, guys, my dream is to own apartments. I want to buy apartment complex. I’m in L.A.. We probably need about $20 million, so. But then I have $20 million to deploy. Right? Because every apartment you look right, then left. And I want a certain units count, right?
00:20:13:07 – 00:20:21:21
Igor
I want like 50 plus, maybe 100. And then the guy turns out to me and saying, I want to buy apartment as well. I just There’s.
00:20:21:21 – 00:20:22:07
Rod
Nikita.
00:20:22:09 – 00:20:26:04
Igor
Yeah, that Nikita. I just bought four units and then four.
00:20:26:04 – 00:20:27:07
Rod
Or 44.
00:20:27:07 – 00:20:49:12
Igor
Units. Four. A duplex right in the Miami. Okay. And I turned around and sold it. I got lucky, but I understood my lesson. So there’s a lot of management pieces, and you got to talk to them anyway. So you become not the financial person. You become really the person of operations and having the background of the business. So we both really understand what the operation looks like.
00:20:49:15 – 00:21:09:04
Rod
And then so he has a business background as well. He does so. So this is your partner right now that’s in 3000 units with you? Yes, Correct. Yeah, I’m about really 500, almost 500 million in value. And so So just to stop you there for a second so I know I know the answer because we talked about this briefly before we started recording.
00:21:09:06 – 00:21:22:17
Rod
You focus on investor relations and bringing in money. And he is he is more of a detail person. He is so he’s analytical. He likes he he’s one of those mutants that you throw in a room with a spreadsheet and you just throw raw meat in once in a while to him. Okay? He’s one of those.
00:21:22:17 – 00:21:25:23
Igor
You won’t be sitting with you and talking because he needs a spreadsheet.
00:21:25:25 – 00:21:27:15
Rod
He needs a spreadsheet to back up.
00:21:27:15 – 00:21:47:05
Igor
What year you were born. So what’s the how many stories? And then so anyways, if you if you talk to Nikita and you want to do something, you got to give him spreadsheets first. Okay. So what’s the system behind that? Right. How’s that system advised. Right. And then he’s the type of person and again, this is the power of the partnership when we when we get together.
00:21:47:05 – 00:21:50:21
Igor
So the idea was, number one, that’s what sparks the partnership.
00:21:50:21 – 00:21:51:19
Rod
Sure, sure, Of course.
00:21:51:19 – 00:21:55:05
Igor
But then the secondly, like, what’s what’s the skill, right? What’s the skill.
00:21:55:05 – 00:21:56:24
Rod
Set and is it complementary?
00:21:56:24 – 00:22:06:17
Igor
Is a complementary right. And then there was no brainer. So I was more outgoing in the, you know, spoken, right. And then then going out and meeting with people. And again that’s coaching.
00:22:06:17 – 00:22:12:26
Rod
Job, right? Of course. Yeah. You’re doing it. You do it every day. You’re a great communicator and then he’s more analytical and introverted. Yes. Yeah.
00:22:12:27 – 00:22:25:22
Igor
Because, well, because you got to sell yourself. What’s the coaching? It’s a sell yourself is service. Right. And then he was the other background. He was like, okay, what’s underneath of that thing? So what are the people telling? Is that true? Let’s look at the numbers. Right? Of course you.
00:22:25:22 – 00:22:45:11
Rod
Need both pieces in this business. I’ll tell you and me, you’re just an example of the most successful partnerships I see that sit on that couch or have been interviewed on my show. And it’s an analytical person with an outgoing person. And that’s that’s that’s a match made in heaven in our business because you need the numbers. Our business is primarily empirical and you need the relationships.
00:22:45:13 – 00:23:05:26
Rod
It’s a relationship business. Now, by the way, this is a partnership business, guys. And and partnerships like a marriage are easy to get into and hard to get out of. Okay, so you want to ask all the hard questions upfront and if you I’ve got a book you can get it’s on Rod’s links XCOM of the questions you should ask before you get into a partnership.
00:23:06:02 – 00:23:24:14
Rod
You know, ask the hard questions. So obviously yours is successful, but some don’t end up successful. So, you know, you want to ask those hard questions upfront. And if you go to Rod’s links dot com and go to the free resources, the book is there with those questions. So so talk about the first deal you and Nikita did.
00:23:24:14 – 00:23:27:17
Rod
Where was it? How did it come about? Talk about it. Yeah.
00:23:27:17 – 00:23:46:06
Igor
So number one, the internal, the internal, I would say our internal world. We can’t sell the things we didn’t try. Like not. And it’s the same way. Okay? And then we sit down together, we say we can’t really. I mean, the idea of the business was always to create a fund.
00:23:46:11 – 00:23:47:07
Rod
Okay, so.
00:23:47:07 – 00:24:04:05
Igor
The create the fund for what? To get the the partners right and then buy more and the scale more right in the way. So and then we said, how we can get there. So can we sell right now? We said, absolutely not. We’ve got to test it. We got to test it and we’ve got to find the best operators in class.
00:24:04:07 – 00:24:14:27
Rod
Okay? Okay. So you do a fund of funds then? Yeah. I thought you were. Yeah. Okay. So you’re doing a fund of funds and you’re connecting with other operators. Okay. I didn’t know that. Okay.
00:24:15:00 – 00:24:16:15
Igor
No, no, no, no. You’re right.
00:24:16:15 – 00:24:18:21
Rod
Yeah. Okay. Okay. I didn’t pick up on that.
00:24:18:21 – 00:24:22:07
Igor
That’s why I mentioned. Remember, we. We have no intention to go into the operation.
00:24:22:10 – 00:24:33:05
Rod
Gotcha. Gotcha. And I was asking you, you know, do you want to talk about due diligence? You know, all of that stuff. And and you’re not doing that. You’re basically aligning with successful operators and bringing them money?
00:24:33:11 – 00:24:35:12
Igor
No, we do due diligence again.
00:24:35:12 – 00:24:59:22
Rod
You keep them well, you do due diligence on the operators. Yeah. Yes. And and a probably on the property. Yeah. Yes of course. Okay. Okay. Now I get it. I, I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on that initially. So, so, so talk, let’s talk a bit about that. So you, you met an operator, you like to you start you talk about the process of of, of finding an operator you wanted to do your first deal with.
00:24:59:24 – 00:25:01:03
Rod
Talk about that.
00:25:01:05 – 00:25:27:24
Igor
that’s a great question. Thank you, Rod. And then I think there’s a there’s a billboard always. Right? The social billboard of the operator. we do this, we do that, and then we are really good and we got, you know, billions under management and stuff like that. And what our first piece is when we just start at number one, there’s no database like you can’t find database.
00:25:27:26 – 00:25:30:03
Rod
You mean of potential investors thousand.
00:25:30:03 – 00:25:36:24
Igor
There’s thousand operators, right? And here’s a scoring. And then if you want to do this, you can go to those ten.
00:25:36:26 – 00:25:37:13
Rod
you’re talking about.
00:25:37:13 – 00:25:51:03
Igor
Storage, right? I’m talking about operators. Right. Gotcha. So basically the people say, how do I know if they just started out their studios? You got to find out. You got to talk, you got a deep you got to ask the right questions, which just to.
00:25:51:03 – 00:25:52:17
Rod
Make sure they’re not brand new.
00:25:52:19 – 00:26:05:11
Igor
Yeah. To make sure they’re not brand new and they’re just not getting together. Or maybe it’s a second deal or something like that. Right. And that was the number one thing for us. So we just finding the people who is in the business at least ten years.
00:26:05:18 – 00:26:12:05
Rod
Okay, So you want a ten year run Now, you didn’t start in multifamily either. I think you told me earlier. Correct. You started in something else.
00:26:12:06 – 00:26:13:09
Igor
Now we just started. you.
00:26:13:09 – 00:26:17:15
Rod
Just started multiple. Okay. Okay. I thought you said you’d done self-storage and some other things. Does that mean I.
00:26:17:20 – 00:26:18:19
Igor
Suppose later on.
00:26:18:19 – 00:26:19:23
Rod
Later on, we got it. Okay.
00:26:19:23 – 00:26:20:28
Igor
I got hit by the.
00:26:20:28 – 00:26:24:11
Rod
So, so, so you wanted somebody that had been in business ten years.
00:26:24:13 – 00:26:34:06
Igor
That was. That was number one. Okay. The second one, what does the team looks like again, the multifamily space. It’s a business, right? It is a business.
00:26:34:11 – 00:26:34:21
Rod
sure.
00:26:34:26 – 00:26:36:13
Igor
Every business has a different.
00:26:36:19 – 00:26:46:04
Rod
Every every asset is a business as well. It’s not just the business of being an operator that every every property you buy is a business. You’re doing a business plan for that business. Yeah, Yeah.
00:26:46:11 – 00:26:52:26
Igor
So if you look at the bigger picture, basically it’s like a roll up system, right? Of the businesses you buy the business.
00:26:52:26 – 00:27:04:07
Rod
That’s very good. I’ve never even thought about that before. When you’re buying apartment complexes, you’re really kind of doing a roll up. I never even made that analogy. I’m sorry, I interrupted, but that actually struck me. Okay. Yeah.
00:27:04:07 – 00:27:13:16
Igor
Thank you. So and then and again, you get the business and Russia’s hundred million dollars right in revenue per year in Russia.
00:27:13:18 – 00:27:16:09
Rod
What? I’m sorry, What’s $100 million business in Russia?
00:27:16:09 – 00:27:23:16
Igor
That’s the revenue. His business revenues, 100 million loses per year. It’s a it’s a Starbucks model in Saint Petersburg.
00:27:23:17 – 00:27:28:10
Rod
Okay, Now, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m. I missed you here. Now, who are we talking about now?
00:27:28:10 – 00:27:28:29
Igor
My partner.
00:27:28:29 – 00:27:31:22
Rod
Nikita. he has a Starbucks kind of business. Yeah.
00:27:31:24 – 00:27:39:05
Igor
Got it now. And he is open 2015. Okay, Like a Starbucks. Okay. File business of Saint Petersburg.
00:27:39:05 – 00:27:39:20
Rod
Got it.
00:27:39:20 – 00:28:05:25
Igor
So they have about 120 locations right now in one series. Well, what I’m saying is there’s a lot of business education Once you go through that process. Growing company a right, higher in people you know scaling right And in that all together package that maybe sell it in the future. So what I’m saying is the real estate, if you look at the bigger picture, if you look in like wider picture, if you got a one apartment complex, it’s a business.
00:28:05:27 – 00:28:24:13
Igor
And then you look at the revenue rates of that business, you look at the expenses, you look at the employees, right? If they do a good job, it’s a good business. And the ready to buy, the cheaper you buy, the better, Right, if you got one. So that’s great. If you got five, that’s a different equity multiplier. So if you got ten, 20 of them.
00:28:24:13 – 00:28:36:18
Igor
Right. So basically what we did start to look at, we start to look at operators who owns 1010 or more assets, right. So they get in one location. Yeah. And one like one city MSA, I would say. Okay.
00:28:36:21 – 00:28:50:22
Rod
And one MSA. MSA is Metropolitan Statistical Area like, like a big metropolitan like like a Tampa or a Phenix or an Atlanta would be an either. Those are MSAs. Okay. So somebody had at least ten assets in one MSA ten years.
00:28:50:22 – 00:28:50:28
Igor
Yeah.
00:28:51:02 – 00:28:51:25
Rod
And ten years.
00:28:51:25 – 00:29:17:06
Igor
Ten years. And then if you look from the high level, right. So we were saying, okay, if we operator and we got ten properties in one city, let’s say, right, and then we want to move to and it’s in Texas, let’s say, and we want to move to different states, how much of the manpower rate in in general rate financial bar, you need to move that whole company to Phenix, let’s say, Right.
00:29:17:06 – 00:29:38:29
Igor
And start that business again. Right. And then buy again ten, ten assets. Right. It’s almost impossible. But then if you fund the funds and you understand the North Carolina is booming market all right. Then you can shift your financial basically, right. Financial power into North Carolina. But having that really good partner. Right. That’s going to be like a click.
00:29:39:01 – 00:29:53:22
Rod
So what you’re saying, just so I just try to be clear on what you’re saying is you could have a partner in Texas that has ten assets in a in a in one MSA. Yeah. That’s been in business for ten years. But you go to North Carolina, you’re going to go to a different partner. There is what you’re saying?
00:29:53:22 – 00:30:06:17
Igor
Absolutely different partner. Right. Who’s who’s a lot more present. They know exactly what’s going on in the market. The local people rate. They just understand which pockets are better, right? Sure. They penetrate markets a lot better than everybody else.
00:30:06:17 – 00:30:41:16
Rod
You know, what’s interesting is, is most big private equity companies do it the same way. They like to see operators that are vertically integrated even as well, ideally, vertically integrated where they have their own property management, construction and everything as well in the market. Yeah, Yeah. I mean that that’s just that, that’s I was talking to somebody that, that knows a lot about private equity and was doing a presentation and he said that, you know that that’s that’s a very common you know the way you’re looking at operators is, is similar to private equity.
00:30:41:18 – 00:30:53:09
Rod
So that’s that’s really smart And so so you founded on what was your first first operator and what state was it? Texas. It was California was California. no kidding. You did the California deal. Wow.
00:30:53:09 – 00:30:58:19
Igor
And again, it took us a first deal to understand that we don’t want to be in California.
00:30:58:22 – 00:30:59:07
Rod
gotcha.
00:30:59:08 – 00:31:08:27
Igor
But but again, it was California because it was close by. We were still emotionally attached. Sure. we got to be local. We can drive to the place. We can see the people.
00:31:08:27 – 00:31:14:25
Rod
Right. You get past that after a while. But yes, everybody starts in that place. It’s very difficult to go out of state in this area. Yes, you’re.
00:31:15:03 – 00:31:23:06
Igor
Right. Not to say we found out about syndication, the whole syndication model. And it feels like a scam.
00:31:23:09 – 00:31:25:07
Rod
It felt like a scam. Really? Yeah. Why?
00:31:25:07 – 00:31:27:20
Igor
It’s like it’s too good to be true.
00:31:27:22 – 00:31:28:16
Rod
gotcha. Okay.
00:31:28:16 – 00:31:30:11
Igor
You talking about 18%.
00:31:30:16 – 00:31:33:07
Rod
Here are right. No way. Right.
00:31:33:09 – 00:31:44:16
Igor
So why? And the question is why. And then we start to find out. So it’s a little too small for big companies, for big private equity companies, and then it’s a little too big for the.
00:31:44:16 – 00:31:45:29
Rod
Mom and pops. Yeah, right.
00:31:46:01 – 00:31:53:28
Igor
So it’s right in the middle. And again, from the from the financial background, the understanding of the business was that, okay, this is a good niche market.
00:31:53:28 – 00:31:54:06
Rod
Yeah.
00:31:54:12 – 00:31:55:22
Igor
Because if you want to deploy.
00:31:55:24 – 00:31:58:10
Rod
What size, what size are you talking about for your niche?
00:31:58:13 – 00:32:00:01
Igor
I’m talking about 100 plus unit.
00:32:00:01 – 00:32:00:15
Rod
Gotcha.
00:32:00:15 – 00:32:03:27
Igor
But it’s between, let’s say 10 to $50 million.
00:32:03:27 – 00:32:04:13
Rod
Gotcha.
00:32:04:15 – 00:32:13:01
Igor
Property and again, so if you want to a retail person want to go this route. Right they got to be a crazy people at list. Right. If they start to deploy the capital.
00:32:13:04 – 00:32:13:14
Rod
Right.
00:32:13:14 – 00:32:31:21
Igor
Let’s say couple million dollars. But then if the private equity, they drop in like $100 million. Right. Where are you going to place it? Right. You got to really number one. So nobody wants to be in the one asset, Right. The they want to separate the risks, Right. So they want to split those checks right in between. So what I’m saying is there’s a really good niche market.
00:32:31:21 – 00:32:47:12
Igor
And we said, okay, let’s tackle into that niche market. Let’s see who’s operating within that niche market, who is the best operating class. Not to say we would start to explore is storage as we get hit by the by the banks, by the rates, right? So we start to say, okay.
00:32:47:19 – 00:32:49:20
Rod
When did you start exploring storage? I think.
00:32:49:20 – 00:32:52:11
Igor
It was a 2020.
00:32:52:14 – 00:32:57:00
Rod
Two. Okay. And and you were already in a good bit of multifamily at that point.
00:32:57:00 – 00:32:57:29
Igor
Yes. So, okay.
00:32:58:05 – 00:33:03:01
Rod
I have a question. Let me stop you before we talk about storage. So do you raise most of your money in Russia?
00:33:03:03 – 00:33:03:15
Igor
No.
00:33:03:22 – 00:33:05:00
Rod
Okay. No, you do it locally.
00:33:05:00 – 00:33:06:26
Igor
It’s not it’s not the it’s not the point.
00:33:07:01 – 00:33:09:00
Rod
No. interesting. Locally. Yeah. Okay.
00:33:09:00 – 00:33:12:10
Igor
I would say it’s it’s the Russian speaking community. Okay.
00:33:12:10 – 00:33:32:05
Rod
Okay. So you hit the Russian community a lot. Yeah. You’re here. Yeah, I know. There’s a huge Russian community in Sunny Isles and in Miami cause big time. Yeah, big time. Because I have a friend that’s Russian that lives there. And, yeah, he went to some restaurants. Is that so? That’s an area you probably target. What? Where? Where are the Russian communities?
00:33:32:05 – 00:33:33:14
Rod
Probably in New York.
00:33:33:16 – 00:33:37:15
Igor
You know what? It’s everywhere in the in the big cities, Chicago, New.
00:33:37:15 – 00:33:42:21
Rod
York, they all have big and they stick. They stick together. And as in it’s like in the submarket in these cities.
00:33:42:23 – 00:34:00:00
Igor
I mean, they actually do, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there’s there’s two groups. The one who doesn’t want to be part of it and they kind of integrate into the US. Right. Right. And that’s probably one of me as well. So. Right. But then the other part, it just they just came in two, three years ago. Right. And again, not to speak.
00:34:00:00 – 00:34:03:09
Igor
We experience pretty bad times right now in Russia.
00:34:03:13 – 00:34:03:26
Rod
I know.
00:34:03:26 – 00:34:09:26
Igor
Right. And what happened is people just flooded out of the country. Gotcha. There’s a millions of people who left.
00:34:09:27 – 00:34:10:23
Rod
Who left and came to the.
00:34:10:23 – 00:34:20:14
Igor
States on the boats, on the both sides, the Ukraine and Russia. Right, Right. They just left. And it’s not because of the thing. It’s just because they not agree with what’s happening. So and again, but.
00:34:20:19 – 00:34:37:13
Rod
I’d love to get your take on what’s happening over there, but I don’t want to shift the gears off of of money right now, but I’d love to get your opinion. So. So how do you market to the Russian community? What do you do to to raise money to with Russian speakers here in the United States? Talk about some of the strategies.
00:34:37:15 – 00:34:46:04
Igor
I think I don’t think we’re doing anything specific to say it’s a Russian campaign. I mean, for sure was speaking at the events and we talk to people. Right. Right. And we educate.
00:34:46:05 – 00:34:58:08
Rod
So you go to events. Yeah. That’s one thing you do is you go to I don’t know we’re talking about hunters event. You Go to events like that. Other other people that do multifamily related events is.
00:34:58:10 – 00:35:01:10
Igor
Yeah, yeah I would say not multifamily.
00:35:01:10 – 00:35:05:09
Rod
Really. No. Okay what what types of business related. So business events.
00:35:05:09 – 00:35:23:11
Igor
Business because again, if you go to multifamily related everybody you like, you basically, you are against everybody, right? Right. Everybody’s doing the same thing, right? But if you go into the business event and now you start to talk about investing, right? Investing into the real estate, right. And you got all of those.
00:35:23:13 – 00:35:27:05
Rod
You’re a big fish in a small pond versus, you know, a whole bunch of fish. Okay.
00:35:27:05 – 00:35:43:00
Igor
Yeah. And then everybody’s looking at the you guys, the you guys, a fund and the what do you guys do? And they start to ask questions and this is we found it’s the, the better community. Right. You go in the cross-sections okay not going directly into the real estate maybe but you go into the let’s say dentist conference.
00:35:43:02 – 00:35:44:20
Rod
Or dentist conference. Okay.
00:35:44:23 – 00:35:51:13
Igor
And then you go to the business club events, right? Like we just build in businesses or you like.
00:35:51:16 – 00:35:53:22
Rod
Entrepreneurship kind of events. Yeah.
00:35:53:24 – 00:36:16:09
Igor
Yeah. Internship events. And then so you will find, you know, Russian speaking community there or maybe maybe there is some of them are directly for Russian community just right interest of course club for example right in Miami which is just a Russian speaking interpreting our community is a there’s a bunch of different once again most it’s a business business.
00:36:16:17 – 00:36:24:01
Rod
How much money have you raised so far If you’re willing to share that, how much money do you think you’ve raised since you got started? There are a number, you know, off the top of your head.
00:36:24:03 – 00:36:26:17
Igor
Of multiple million dollars.
00:36:26:18 – 00:36:31:13
Rod
Well, no, I know it’s multiple million dollars. I’m just curious if it’s like 100 million.
00:36:31:13 – 00:36:36:01
Igor
50 no, no, we’re not in that box. Okay? I mean, I still consider us. We just started.
00:36:36:02 – 00:36:37:21
Rod
You just started. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
00:36:37:21 – 00:36:38:04
Igor
So.
00:36:38:06 – 00:36:38:26
Rod
Got you.
00:36:38:28 – 00:36:39:21
Igor
That’s why I don’t want to.
00:36:39:22 – 00:36:43:13
Rod
How much money do you typically put into a deal with an operator?
00:36:43:18 – 00:36:46:19
Igor
Between the million dollars, I would say the minimum would commit 2 million.
00:36:46:19 – 00:37:06:02
Rod
A million? Okay. All right. So they’re not they’re not huge chunks like private equity. Okay. Yeah. We bring you know, we bring in Koji piece in our deals. We’ve got a deal right now in San Antonio. Screamin deal. my God. It’s 200 units next a mile away from a 296 unit we already own. And there’s 200 units.
00:37:06:05 – 00:37:11:20
Rod
The one next door sold for 137,000 a unit. We’re getting this one for 100,000 a unit.
00:37:11:20 – 00:37:12:04
Igor
That’s a good.
00:37:12:04 – 00:37:28:13
Rod
Deal. Yeah, it’s a good deal. It’s an incredible deal. So we’re really excited. But we brought in a couple of Koji PS eight. We they have to raise a million apiece to to come in and, and they have to be actively involved in the deal in our case. Okay. For them, for them to be involved, they have to be actively involved.
00:37:28:20 – 00:37:32:20
Rod
You can’t just raise the money in that scenario.
00:37:32:22 – 00:37:47:08
Igor
So so one of the deals we actually like when you got this cushion before you actually going into the deal, right. Those are the best, right? Because because again, the worst thing when lose the principal.
00:37:47:10 – 00:37:51:19
Rod
What do you mean you lose the. yeah yeah. With the deal goes south and the deal goes south. South.
00:37:51:19 – 00:37:56:15
Igor
Right. Something is not working and then you come back to investor say, sorry, we lost half of your money, right?
00:37:56:17 – 00:37:58:04
Rod
Yeah. Yeah, that’s not good.
00:37:58:10 – 00:38:07:28
Igor
It’s not good. I mean, at least want the south. We, we try, we did the best we could rate but we didn’t list the, we didn’t lose the principal because the deal was so good.
00:38:08:04 – 00:38:08:17
Rod
Gotcha.
00:38:08:17 – 00:38:14:02
Igor
We didn’t make as much money. Let’s say 5%. 10%. That’s fine. Nobody’s going to tell you.
00:38:14:05 – 00:38:21:01
Rod
Have you gotten in any deals that have bridged it? Yeah. Yeah. And they’re struggling a little bit. Yeah, I’ve got a couple.
00:38:21:03 – 00:38:23:16
Igor
A couple couple capital calls as well, because.
00:38:23:16 – 00:38:24:12
Rod
You had to do capital.
00:38:24:15 – 00:38:25:24
Igor
Because of this bridge. Not. Yeah.
00:38:26:01 – 00:38:43:29
Rod
Yeah. I’m dealing with some stuff with the next partner as well myself right now and, and and a couple of bridge deals. I mean, I think we’ll be okay, but, you know, it’s no fun, you know, going through the the word it in MHC enemy, the National multifamily housing conference it was in San Diego about a month ago.
00:38:43:29 – 00:38:50:19
Rod
I had a team, a team members there. I couldn’t go, but it was survive till 25 plus. That was the theme. It’s like, crap.
00:38:50:23 – 00:38:57:23
Igor
That’s a good word for Westwood. Yeah. So the back to this thing. So I think it teaches us wild things.
00:38:57:23 – 00:39:00:03
Rod
What does teach? What is the business.
00:39:00:05 – 00:39:03:16
Igor
Know When you mentioned this, you know, we’ve got capital Gallegos.
00:39:03:18 – 00:39:04:08
Rod
sure, sure.
00:39:04:08 – 00:39:25:04
Igor
Because now you start to really understand what’s the market is right? And then I start to be really thankful for us. Right? Testing in the beginning was our own money. Right. And especially those bridge lenders and finance and not certain operators because you learn so much. So you can give you investors the best piece out of it.
00:39:25:04 – 00:39:45:19
Rod
Sure. No, I, I mean, you know, bridge debt is is hobbling a lot of people right now. And there’s some deals that are going south. Luckily in my warrior group, knock on wood, I mean, I think we’ve only had one deal go south now out of almost 200,000 units. So I’m very, very proud of that. But there’s a lot of a lot of people struggling.
00:39:45:19 – 00:40:10:15
Rod
I mean, we were looking at a deal in San Antonio and the the the reserve that the lender required, the bridge lender required the reserve to prepare for the rate cap went from 8000 a month to 80,000 a month. It was a small deal, but it’s like, you know, I mean, ten times what index. Yeah that’s crazy But, so, so you, so you do most of your equity raising just one on one networking then.
00:40:10:18 – 00:40:12:08
Igor
Not 1 to 1 one too many.
00:40:12:08 – 00:40:21:14
Rod
I want us to you go speak at end of. Yeah. Gotcha. So you go open and speak to a group of of Russians as often as possible, you know.
00:40:21:15 – 00:40:32:08
Igor
And again I’m saying the Russians. It’s really not the the only target. Sure, sure, sure. And again, a lot of them, it’s people who’s already these. They may have a Russian last name.
00:40:32:11 – 00:40:33:06
Rod
Well, gotcha. But they.
00:40:33:06 – 00:40:34:08
Igor
Don’t even speak Russian.
00:40:34:08 – 00:40:35:13
Rod
Now. Gotcha. Okay.
00:40:35:17 – 00:40:41:17
Igor
And again. But they can really connect emotionally. Sure. Very fast. Yeah. And the understanding. Exactly. What’s the background?
00:40:41:19 – 00:40:51:14
Rod
Well, you build rapport when you when you’re, you know, connected like that. It’s instant rapport, you know. And that’s the first stage of being able to influence is to have that rapport. Right.
00:40:51:17 – 00:40:58:20
Igor
Yeah. Going on the podcast, right. Yeah. And talking to people like share the experience, right? They share in the background. So that’s the best thing. So, you.
00:40:58:22 – 00:41:05:28
Rod
Know, that’s why you’re here. You know, that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s the you get to get exposure and get out there. You know, that’s how it works.
00:41:06:00 – 00:41:18:22
Igor
And I think once to many that’s power. So again, one course I mean you can go through the stage one I want to you should go one on one. Yeah you should talk to people. Right. You should meet with them, especially as you go through the first stage of your family.
00:41:18:22 – 00:41:39:19
Rod
But you may not meet them that way. Maybe you meet them through the podcast or people reach out to you and and then then you have the one on one conversations. I mean, we’re having a lot more one on one conversations now with the, you know, the state of the economy and investors a little skittish and stuff. And, you know and it’s it’s a little more hand-holding than it has been in the past for sure.
00:41:39:22 – 00:41:47:29
Rod
So you’re in 17 deals now, over 3000 doors with, how many operators would you say you’re you’re with right now?
00:41:48:01 – 00:41:50:12
Igor
I would say like 15 of them.
00:41:50:12 – 00:42:11:27
Rod
That many. Wow. Okay. So you’re like one off with almost each person, just one one really spreading it out there. And so you talked about what you look for in a team. You know that you want to work with. talk about what you look for in the asset when when Nikita does his due diligence. Yeah. How does he have time for that?
00:42:11:27 – 00:42:18:29
Rod
With 100. Does he still have those stores in, in. he sold the stores out there. Okay, got it. Okay, he’s out. He’s out. Okay, got it. Okay.
00:42:19:01 – 00:42:21:06
Igor
That was his point of real estate investing.
00:42:21:12 – 00:42:25:27
Rod
gotcha. Okay. So that was his get out was his framework to get started in this. Got it.
00:42:25:27 – 00:42:42:24
Igor
Okay. He was like, I want to get out. And then he’s. I want to move to the United States. Right. That’s my country. I feel it. And he’s been here like millions of that. Right. But then the thing was okay like how can you get the green card right. How can you.
00:42:42:26 – 00:42:44:18
Rod
You have to have a business.
00:42:44:21 – 00:43:05:03
Igor
How you can officially be the, you know, the United States citizen. Right. Or maybe the green card holder and then he, he has a multiple actually citizen, a citizen. So see, he’s a Israel and Russian citizen. So and he’s trying to apply through different countries. And he gets denied all over, really denied and denied. And the the Zoom call.
00:43:05:03 – 00:43:13:25
Igor
And he’s saying to me so with all of the visas and then the green card, so I’m trying to apply, I’m actually applying for a lottery as well every year.
00:43:13:26 – 00:43:14:14
Rod
Well.
00:43:14:16 – 00:43:25:21
Igor
And then he calls me one of the say I won. Well, I won. I was like, What do you win? So I won the lottery. I got a green card. Wow, this is the bullshit. That’s the biggest bullshit you can tell me. It’s not possible.
00:43:25:21 – 00:43:27:04
Rod
Like it was true yet about that.
00:43:27:04 – 00:43:43:23
Igor
So stop it. Really? Because I don’t hear me. I won the thing. I was like, That’s. That’s the bullshit. Stop telling me this thing. So when I see that, I’ll trust, right? And then I believe you, though. And then. And then he’s like, No, I’ll send you paper. And he sent me the paper and he he actually won the green card.
00:43:43:24 – 00:43:45:06
Rod
They had a lottery for a green card.
00:43:45:06 – 00:43:49:07
Igor
They do. Right. And it’s a very, very small chance. Slim chance. You’re winning.
00:43:49:07 – 00:43:51:17
Rod
That’s crazy. So is he in the States now?
00:43:51:17 – 00:43:55:00
Igor
He is in the States now. He moved in August and he’s in L.A. as well.
00:43:55:03 – 00:43:58:03
Rod
So you’re both in L.A.. Okay. Well, fantastic.
00:43:58:05 – 00:44:12:10
Igor
So anyways, back to this thing. So he was looking at those assets as his personal investment, number one. So how can I get personally benefit from the investment? So the one thing was we want to buy on their market, right? So we want to get.
00:44:12:10 – 00:44:14:17
Rod
The, the asset needs to be bought under market. Yeah.
00:44:14:18 – 00:44:33:02
Igor
Got Yeah. So and then he was looking always like distressed assets or maybe they go through tough management they got right they got bad debt let’s say they want to get out right. They got some, you know internal problem was partnership and stuff like that. And then one of the first ones was very interesting actually in California was Oakland.
00:44:33:05 – 00:44:54:26
Igor
And then it’s a hotel development and that development’s a hotel, right. Just a building, existing building was 1970 something. And then the two older owners, one of them 81, now 89, the other 190. Wow. They want to sell real old. They want to sell. And I think it was the middle of COVID 19 or something like that.
00:44:54:26 – 00:44:56:25
Rod
So so they were struggling before that.
00:44:57:01 – 00:45:08:23
Igor
So they were like 70% occupied. And it’s Oakland. I think I forgot the name of Plaza. I’ll remember that. And then they were struggling completely because the occupancy rate went down to,
00:45:08:26 – 00:45:10:11
Rod
Sure, COVID 20.
00:45:10:15 – 00:45:12:15
Igor
Vegas killed. Yeah.
00:45:12:17 – 00:45:15:17
Rod
A lot of hotels went out of business and so it changed hands.
00:45:15:17 – 00:45:37:02
Igor
And then they were we want to get out. We want to get out. It was pre-covid-19 the price was 21 million. So once the COVID hit and, they had the they based sell on an ally. What’s the what’s the business bringing to the table? Nothing. Almost zero rate the expenses more than the bringing to the table right. And they willing to sell it for 14 I mean 14 or 10 million.
00:45:37:02 – 00:45:38:26
Rod
So for 21 to 14 from.
00:45:38:26 – 00:45:44:25
Igor
21 to 14, we said, okay, that’s a great entry point. Just do it right, let’s get in. And then you.
00:45:44:28 – 00:45:46:27
Rod
Probably get did you syndicate or just buy it yourself.
00:45:47:01 – 00:45:53:22
Igor
A syndicate? So the problem was, so we need to just basically to discuss. Got to remodel.
00:45:53:27 – 00:45:54:28
Rod
you had to completely gutted.
00:45:54:28 – 00:46:06:10
Igor
Wow. Completely got it right. The remodel, the thing and then the problem start to come in. So we start to really understand what does that means to really go and deep renovation, to do really deep work on the property.
00:46:06:14 – 00:46:07:21
Rod
It’s a great experience.
00:46:07:23 – 00:46:26:21
Igor
And it’s a great experience because the city shows up and they say, you guys next by the water, What do you need to do? Reinforce the whole basement. You got to like, you got to pour the concrete. That was like, okay, how much is going to cost from like 351 up to like 1 to 1000000? We’re like, okay, that that’s a really amazing experience, right?
00:46:26:21 – 00:46:45:09
Igor
And then the second was, so the the inspection came in and they were, you got to do the occupancy in the hotel. Usually very small if you it’s going to be studios and we were planning to do studios Right. Smaller studios it’s going to be like a 90% occupied or so. The electricity is not going to hold the plumbing is not good.
00:46:45:12 – 00:46:56:13
Rod
So you converting to multi. Yeah. you’re converting to multi. Okay to do this. Okay. So you had to upgrade the electrical. Did you have to What about sprinklers and all that. All of it. You had to do it all.
00:46:56:15 – 00:47:04:26
Igor
You got to do it all. And, and then the construction cost was 3.5 million all in. Wow. And this became how many keys? 8.5.
00:47:05:02 – 00:47:14:21
Rod
It became 8.53, 330. So you want to three and a half. You went from a CapEx to three and a half to eight and a half. Wow. I that’s a that’s a seminar.
00:47:14:21 – 00:47:32:22
Igor
And because of the big, big partner we we partner with, Right. I’m not going to say the names or they were reason that that fun next to it and we said okay opportunities on fact not got so and then because the opportunity zone fund that deployed what we’re going to do we’re going to take the portion of the money right and we deploy it here.
00:47:32:25 – 00:47:38:06
Igor
So we kind of save the pride anyways. That was a really, really good learning process. Sure. So we go to.
00:47:38:06 – 00:47:38:17
Rod
Lesson.
00:47:38:21 – 00:47:41:01
Igor
We got into this so much stuff there, Right?
00:47:41:01 – 00:47:48:22
Rod
So what would you what could you have done differently? I mean, I know the answer, but I’m just curious, you know, what you would have done differently, A lot more due diligence upfront.
00:47:48:26 – 00:48:01:15
Igor
We don’t even right now I wouldn’t probably touch says much of the renovation piece. It’s like it’s it’s probably by now it’s easy to say it’s better to build ground up. Yeah. Than just to go as deep as we.
00:48:01:15 – 00:48:19:00
Rod
A lot of people are doing hotel conversions and boy, I’m sure there’s a lot of seminars out there and similar you know because and of course California is notorious for their regulation. They were crazy. Yeah. I mean they’re the worst in the whole country. So you’re doing that one right now that’s happening right now. That hotel project. Okay.
00:48:19:00 – 00:48:28:03
Rod
And so it’s almost done. And you’re going to you’re going to sell it or what do you do? You’re going to sell it. Okay. What about like you said, you’re doing some self-storage. Talk about that a little bit.
00:48:28:05 – 00:48:47:13
Igor
So when the rate when the rates heat right by the banks, Right. Then we got some rate gap compressions and stuff. So. Right. And it was pretty tough to find something. I mean, there were still different deals out there, but we were like, okay, let’s see, let’s look at the value in again, coming from the business background, what’s the valuation of the piece right?
00:48:47:13 – 00:49:04:09
Igor
So what’s the valuation of multifamily right now as we speak and what’s the self-storage and will we look up at the data? Right. And this self-storage did not go down on valuation. It was exactly the same. And we’re like, okay, we want to be in the business, which is more resilient, right, than the resistance.
00:49:04:09 – 00:49:05:05
Rod
More resilient.
00:49:05:08 – 00:49:12:16
Igor
Yeah. So and then we said, okay, where we can shift and we shifted over to storage. Okay, So we did the research first. So we’ll look at the states.
00:49:12:19 – 00:49:16:26
Rod
Same same same strategy, same ten and ten. Yeah. Really? Okay. Yeah.
00:49:16:26 – 00:49:43:28
Igor
So and then we look at Yeah, we’ll look at the piece. Was that okay? Number one, it’s not as consolidated as multifamily. There’s less bigger players. Right. And right. So what does that means? That means was a less capital. You could get better returns. So and then that was the second the first piece, right? The second piece was okay, if they if we find a really good operator who owns again, ten of those, right, then they’ve been in the business for the last ten years.
00:49:44:00 – 00:49:49:19
Igor
What are the chances of us losing the money right. Almost zero. Right. And the storage is on the upswing.
00:49:49:19 – 00:49:57:14
Rod
Well, storage is so resilient anyway. It’s not like multifamily. And, you know, you don’t have classes of tenants and different things like that.
00:49:57:14 – 00:50:17:16
Igor
So and the second idea was if if everybody’s speaking through, okay, we’re on the brink of the crisis and this financial blah, blah, blah, So and against Michael might not nobody knows. But you want to position yourself, you want to position you capital right on the on the spot where is going to benefit. And we said, okay, people are going to believe in multifamily, right?
00:50:17:16 – 00:50:30:19
Igor
Or moving from the houses. They I’m talking about more change in rate than switching classes. Let’s say if you leave in a year, right, you have an income anymore, you probably move down to B or maybe C, So you got to store the stuff, you.
00:50:30:19 – 00:50:46:04
Rod
Got to store it, you got to go through this to a smaller place. If there’s an economic downturn in which I believe we’re headed into, people may downsize and they need a place to put their stuff. You know, that they they should just throw it away because they’ll probably never use it again. But that’s the way it works.
00:50:46:07 – 00:51:15:03
Rod
I’ve got six buildings here and I’m out of room with all the crap that I have. You know, it’s just so much stuff. But so, you know, my only I’d like to get your opinion on this because, you know, I know in multifamily, it’s pretty easy to force appreciation based on your efforts. I mean, you can do little things that can be very, very significant in in improving your net operating income and of course, exponentially improving your value in self-storage.
00:51:15:05 – 00:51:20:08
Rod
Do you feel like there’s as much of that opportunity as there is in multi?
00:51:20:11 – 00:51:25:03
Igor
Not as much. Okay. That’s a good point. So but we were looking at portfolio earlier.
00:51:25:06 – 00:51:26:23
Rod
Of portfolio of of.
00:51:26:23 – 00:51:32:27
Igor
Of multiple buildings and look, okay, we said we’re going to getting into the portfolio. Got it. Not into the one thing.
00:51:32:27 – 00:51:38:08
Rod
It’s just one just not instead of 111 facility multiple facilities. Yeah. Okay.
00:51:38:08 – 00:51:52:15
Igor
So basically we got it in the first one we got it and it was like seven different buildings in the one. So just as one purchase, right? We said, So what are the chances of going to be sold as portfolio was the higher multiple. So it’s like a bunch of so.
00:51:52:15 – 00:51:59:20
Rod
You looked at it like it for resale potential because it was, it was more, more facilities. Yeah. Got it. Okay That.
00:51:59:20 – 00:52:25:21
Igor
Was one. That was one. The second one was it was, I would say the second opportunity to force appreciation rate. It was the place was no RV storage. And then what the, what we did to basically edit it was 70 units I think and we added another 110 units. wow. And then half of them was like RV storage, like a bigger spaces.
00:52:25:24 – 00:52:50:01
Igor
Gotcha. And then I think that was a very, very interesting place. So because let’s say it was smaller units, right? Was a smaller frame rate, you can’t back out was a bigger car. Right. But then once you build something bigger and you got bigger space, larger space, there’s multiple use of it, right? So number one, you can store RV car rate, indoor.
00:52:50:04 – 00:52:50:22
Igor
Number two, you can.
00:52:50:22 – 00:52:52:18
Rod
Store your RV inside. Yeah. wow.
00:52:52:18 – 00:53:03:20
Igor
Yeah, that’s a big enough to do that. And then when we added rate that people like, there’s a huge demand to this thing okay because people when when the COVID hit right people bought RV.
00:53:03:25 – 00:53:06:24
Rod
I know they were out there running around by themselves. RVs Right.
00:53:06:29 – 00:53:20:10
Igor
They were going crazy because you want to be outside, right? So that that told us so we need to be in front of it, right? And we’re going to put like a storage so people can see they can store the RV.
00:53:20:10 – 00:53:26:08
Rod
Store And this is covered storage for RV? Yes. That’s that’s unusual, too. Typically, they’re stored outside. So that’s really.
00:53:26:08 – 00:53:28:28
Igor
Good. That’s what I’m saying. So because people will pay more.
00:53:29:02 – 00:53:30:28
Rod
And where was this indoor? Where was it?
00:53:31:00 – 00:53:32:00
Igor
I think it was in Florida.
00:53:32:00 – 00:53:33:01
Rod
Florida. Okay All.
00:53:33:01 – 00:53:34:17
Igor
Right. So and then it could.
00:53:34:17 – 00:53:36:04
Rod
Be RV heaven here in Florida.
00:53:36:06 – 00:53:42:16
Igor
Yeah. Businesses will use that storage to store inventory inside.
00:53:42:18 – 00:53:44:24
Rod
so almost like warehousing. Yeah. Gotcha.
00:53:44:24 – 00:53:47:05
Igor
So it’s like a small niche of the warehouse.
00:53:47:07 – 00:53:47:17
Rod
yeah.
00:53:47:23 – 00:54:00:15
Igor
So the building business will come back out the truck right then store whatever the inventory. And and, you know, you probably know how many businesses, let’s say 10 to $15 million. Right. And they need to get to store.
00:54:00:15 – 00:54:01:22
Rod
So you need extra storage if.
00:54:01:22 – 00:54:06:19
Igor
You go to extra storage or like public storage, right? There’s small units you can back out the.
00:54:06:19 – 00:54:21:11
Rod
Car and you were they were able to back trucks in and drop things off. Okay. Was it was it was this facility previously something else that got converted or was it built that way? Was it built for this use or was it previously something else that got converted?
00:54:21:14 – 00:54:29:15
Igor
Half of that was built that way was a smaller unit. Okay. And then the other half was just adding up. So it’s not converted, just building up.
00:54:29:18 – 00:54:45:25
Rod
Okay, got it. Okay. Because, you know, I know people are converting, you know, big box retailers to storage. And and I was just thinking maybe that maybe that’s what it was or something like that where you got a Kmart or something like that that went out of business and you convert it to storage.
00:54:45:28 – 00:55:03:11
Igor
So the last deal we did actually and we from storage, I just want to bring up one more class from storage. So we said, okay, what else could we the opportunity cost, right? We don’t want to spread too thin, right? We want to get just the three of those things and then the last one was the land entitlement deal.
00:55:03:14 – 00:55:20:25
Igor
so we said, okay, what can we do? Just not to take it like not to do anything operational. So it’s going to be more of a paper plate. Okay. All right. And then we found a really good partner, and it’s in California as well because there’s a shortage of houses. sure. We said, how we can play that thing.
00:55:20:25 – 00:55:31:27
Igor
So. Okay, So that means if you go a little bit away from the city and the people wants to retire. All right. An average price house in L.A., I don’t know, 1.5 million, right?
00:55:31:28 – 00:55:32:18
Rod
Right.
00:55:32:20 – 00:55:54:18
Igor
Maybe a little bit more than that. So but then if you go a little bit, I would say it’s one hour, 15 minutes from downtown, right? You go to Lake Elsinore. That was the city. So you can buy a house at high 500. It’s like 596, 50 or so, and then you can sell your house on the way, move out there.
00:55:54:20 – 00:55:58:19
Igor
Every major retailer. Right, right there, it’s all established.
00:55:58:21 – 00:56:00:00
Rod
Nice suburban structure.
00:56:00:04 – 00:56:17:02
Igor
Nice suburban area. So and then we found a really good land entitlement company who was doing this last 40 years. Wow. They didn’t do one thing. They go out to the county, they go out to the city, and they title that lamp and sell it to the big developer. That was the last asset class we explore and we really, really like.
00:56:17:05 – 00:56:39:27
Rod
Did you get into it? Yeah, you got to see you got into a piece of property. Very nice. Wow. So when you do your fund, is it is it is it asset specific for the returns or is it the fund is completely diversified from all the different asset classes and it’s the returns cumulatively with all the assets. What is it?
00:56:39:27 – 00:56:41:23
Rod
Is it siloed or is it cumulative?
00:56:41:26 – 00:56:44:08
Igor
No, no, it just has a specific asset.
00:56:44:08 – 00:56:58:08
Rod
Specific? Yeah, that’s the same fund we have. We have an opportunity fund. It’s the same way. Do people put money in your fund in advance of you placing it or just when you have an asset specific to put it in?
00:56:58:11 – 00:57:08:16
Igor
Just Yeah, when we got asked and specific, we just threw charts. If you get a sense of what it call rate and then you guys are just soft, right? You know we’re willing to just you know, transfer the funds.
00:57:08:18 – 00:57:34:27
Rod
Gotcha. Gotcha. You know, just as an aside, the fund we set up, we actually pay a return on. And so, you know, they get on four and a half, 5% return and the money is spread between 80 banks and it never goes over 250 grand. So it’s covered by the FDIC as well. So it so you may want I can talk to you about that after we stop recording, but it’s really kind of cool because people can put their money in in advance.
00:57:34:27 – 00:57:47:00
Rod
They’re getting a nice return. And so, you know, you can you can build up the reserves so that you can maybe pay cash for something or move very quickly on something, you know, rather than. That’s interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we’re doing that.
00:57:47:00 – 00:57:53:20
Igor
But so you wait for deployment of the capital rate and then meanwhile it’s in the bank. Well.
00:57:53:22 – 00:57:59:04
Rod
Yeah, well you’re yeah, the money’s they’re earning interest, they’re getting the interest on their money.
00:57:59:06 – 00:58:00:09
Igor
Distribute to the.
00:58:00:11 – 00:58:17:24
Rod
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know this is brand new for us. We haven’t done it yet. I’m not even sure if, if we’re just this one asset we’re buying in San Antonio, we’re using that fund, but the money is going in. Anybody put their money and gets a return on their money, you know, credit like within a week of putting it in, I think, or maybe it’s two weeks.
00:58:17:24 – 00:58:38:05
Rod
We have to we have to get it all worked out logistically with the portal that we use. So I can’t remember, it might be two weeks before they actually start earning the the return, but then they start earning that return in advance of the closing of this asset and they can earmark what asked that they want to put the money in and so on and so forth.
00:58:38:05 – 00:58:41:01
Rod
So it’s kind of cool. What’s the best way. Yeah. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll.
00:58:41:01 – 00:58:41:29
Igor
For it turns around.
00:58:41:29 – 00:59:02:22
Rod
Right. Yeah right, right right right, right. So you mentioned you did a little breathwork before you we started recording and you said, I’m going to do the Tony stuff. And I’m like, Tony Robbins. I’m like, Of course, you know, I spent 20 years with Tony Robbins. And so we talked about that a little bit, talk a little bit about mindset because obviously you’re into it like I am so talk about mindset.
00:59:02:29 – 00:59:23:23
Igor
Yeah, Thank you, Rob. That’s great question. So I think there’s a yeah, if I, if I put it on the scale or I think this was the most important thing for me because again, I feel like there’s half of the life I was in the victim mode, right? So everybody, everybody is doing something right and everybody is, is getting better because of this and that.
00:59:23:23 – 00:59:38:20
Igor
Right? But it was not me. Right. So and then once once you start turn right, there’s a lot of mental work and I think huge book was the Thinking, Grow and Heal. I really love that book. And then I can listen to that book every single day, listen to small pieces.
00:59:38:20 – 00:59:51:13
Rod
So let me say this to you, okay? And I’m not exaggerating, Brooke, Would you say that I’ve given away 4000 copies of Thinking Girl, which. Yeah, 4000 copies. Yes. Yes, 4000.
00:59:51:13 – 00:59:51:29
Igor
That’s huge.
00:59:51:29 – 01:00:11:17
Rod
Yeah, that’s how much I like that book. Okay, That’s a book you should read several times a year. Okay. That. That book is the precursor to all self-actualization and self-improvement. You know, it all started with Napoleon Hill, so. Yeah. Love it. Yeah. No, that’s. That’s a great book. And. And so. Are you still doing anything? You said you listen to my podcast.
01:00:11:17 – 01:00:19:16
Rod
Thank you. I do a little clips there about that are motivational. But do you, is there anything else you do to stay juiced and motivated?
01:00:19:16 – 01:00:27:23
Igor
Yes, I think there’s I mean, it works like that. So I do have my routine, which is Miracle Morning. yeah, Yeah. That good.
01:00:27:25 – 01:00:33:07
Rod
Now, of course, I had Hal on the show twice now, and he’s got his new book out. Hal Elrod. That’s a fantastic book.
01:00:33:09 – 01:00:51:19
Igor
I’ll, I’ll read it as well. So and then I think the story of him going through the tough times, so putting that routine right. And that was super powerful for me because I started to follow that. Yeah. So I wake up early, then I need to write and then I start to do meditation and then scribe and, and reading all that exercise.
01:00:51:21 – 01:01:09:10
Igor
And then every time when I feel like I’m in my, in not in my. How do you say that zone of excellence. Right, right, right in my zone. I start to go back to that routine and I feel like, I skipped this or I skipped exercise where I skipped the meditation. So and you wake up and you’re like, you know what?
01:01:09:10 – 01:01:14:08
Igor
I don’t feel as good rate. Let’s go back to the routine. Let’s be more disciplined.
01:01:14:10 – 01:01:16:11
Rod
You fall off the wagon, you got to get back on the wagon.
01:01:16:18 – 01:01:17:07
Igor
Got to go back.
01:01:17:07 – 01:01:35:17
Rod
Yeah, well, Igor, this has been a real treat to have you out here. I appreciate you coming all this way. And I know you’ve added a ton of value, and you know the name of your fund is a Vista Fund. And, you know, I appreciate you coming in, and, and, you know, you’ve done a lot in a very short amount of time, so.
01:01:35:17 – 01:01:37:02
Rod
Very impressive, my friend.
01:01:37:04 – 01:01:41:17
Igor
Thank you. Thank you. Right. And then it’s my honor. It’s absolute pleasure to be here. And thank you, guys.
01:01:41:22 – 01:01:42:13
Rod
Absolutely.
