Many of us are here investing because, in one way or another, we have been influenced by Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. One of the great lessons it brought us is achieving true financial freedom by making our money work for us through investing. Taking that to heart, guests and sisters, Lillie Manon and Amber Turner, created Vidente Capital—allowing people to invest passively in the safest asset class in real estate to generate monthly cashflow. In this episode, Lisa Hylton talks with Lillie and Amber about their real estate journey and how they are giving people opportunities to invest passively through real estate syndication in multifamily. Following their growth, they also share their transition from small multifamily to large multifamily, and then hiring their VAs and setting up their systems. Learn from Lillie and Amber about investing in real estate and see the many opportunities there already are to achieve greatness.
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Passive Investing, Syndication, And Multifamily Transition With Lillie Manon and Amber Turner
I’m super excited to have two guests with me. The first, her name is Lillie Manon. She is a CEO and Owner. Lillie is a nurse anesthetist by trade and has been in the real estate investing space for many years and has a portfolio of small multifamily properties in Central Connecticut. She has expanded to purchase large multifamily properties and commercial real estate in emerging markets. She is joined by her sister, Amber Little Turner. Welcome, Amber.
Thanks for having me.
Amber is an investor relations. She worked with the former Pennsylvania State Representative, Harry Lewis, Jr. as a Constituent Outreach Specialist, helping real estate professionals and developers cut through government red tape in the efforts of revitalizing the City of Coatesville. She brings a unique private and public sector perspective to real estate investing and has made it her life’s work to be involved in multiple not-for-profit organizations. Together, they are the team that’s called Vidente Capital. Welcome to the show, ladies.
Thank you for having us. We are excited to share with your audience and tell them a little bit more about what we have going.
In order to have true financial freedom, you have to find a way to make money while you sleep. Share on XCan you both share how you got started in real estate? We’ll dive deeper into how you got started with Vidente.
Like many, I read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, as a teenager. At that time, a lot of it went in one ear and out the other, but re-read it later. What I did get from it is that in order to have true financial freedom, you have to find a way to make money while you sleep. Also, you have to learn to invest in real estate because we all see the tool that the wealthy use to build wealth. From a young age, I always had this either a burning desire to invest in real estate. After college, I started what you call house hacking. It is having roommates. Eventually, I moved to Jersey City, outside of New York and that turned into multiple roommates. I went on to have a master lease to continue to rent the rooms out after I moved out. I was cashflowing, but I was having to deal with all the repairs and having to worry about keeping the rooms rented. That was my first experience delving into real estate and getting a taste of the real estate medicine. I went on to purchase my own multifamily. That was more interesting experiences, but overall good because it got me excited about multifamily and the power of what it can do for an investment portfolio.
Before we dive to Amber, one quick question for you following up is, when you made your first investment, when you started house hacking, you were in college. Was that undergrad or grad?
It was after I graduated. As soon as I graduated, I moved to DC and it was my first time being on my own. I was looking for an apartment and figured, why not have a roommate? I lived in a big family and I was used to not living by myself. It wasn’t a huge transition.
Passive Investing Syndication: With real estate, you have an actual tangible building that can afford you the opportunity to receive cashflow.
Did you house hack twice or once?
I did it multiple times. I always would sign a lease wherever I was and I would find roommates after the fact. This one situation worked out perfectly because the owner didn’t want to deal with the management of it. He’s like, “You can have a master lease. Do whatever you want, but make sure my rent is paid.” That was my first real experience delving into all the different aspects of managing a property.
That’s innovative because I’m sure a lot of people at that time in life aren’t necessarily thinking, “They could do a master lease and then rent out some of the houses and spaces in their apartment.” It’s interesting. How about yourself, Amber?
I would be piggybacking off what Lillie was saying. Our dad always instilled in us to look at the bigger picture. He didn’t give me the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, but he gave me Rich Dad Poor Dad on nineteen CDs when I was nineteen years old. I’m dating myself a little bit, but I remember listening to a good half of it before I stored it away and I look at it for a number of years afterward. What it did was planted a seed. That’s what it’s all about. I’ve always had a passion and I always paid attention to what was happening in real estate. My husband and I purchased our first home at the age of 22 and 23 years old. That helped us step into the real estate market. When Lillie decided to scale her portfolio, it was a perfect match as far as her background and my background. I came from a government background. I’ve done a lot here in my local community as far as government relations, working for different politicians.
With syndications, the sky's the limit. Share on XI’m volunteering on a lot of different nonprofit boards. I know the scale of the community and what’s happening both from a development standpoint, as well as the government side of things. I understand those dynamics and I have a lot of connections and relationships. I understand how to build those relationships when Lillie was talking about scaling her portfolio. It was a perfect match for us to get together and figure out a way to do that. Through that, we’ve created this company called Vidente Capital. Vidente means visionary in Spanish. Both Lillie and I are visionary in a way that we want to make sure that we’re not only building something for ourselves while we’re here, but we’re building a legacy for those that we leave behind. We’re looking forward to what 2020 brings.
That brings me to my next questions. What would you say is your business plan for Vidente? How do you plan to play in real estate through Vidente?
Vidente Capital is a real estate investment firm. We’ll be purchasing large multifamily properties, 100-plus units. We’re looking at some other potential opportunities as well. There’s a lot in senior care housing, potentially some self-storage. We’re focused solely on multifamily because that’s what we know but with syndications, the sky’s the limit. The beautiful thing about this is we’re giving people the opportunity to invest passively and to be part owner of these buildings. A lot of people don’t realize that this is an opportunity. We’re excited about that. There’s a lot that goes into purchasing a property of this size. We’re developing relationships with brokers and other syndicators to improve our deal flow and constantly analyzing deals as they come across our desk. We are trying to narrow down markets that we want to invest in and educating investors on the opportunity because that’s important. I think people don’t necessarily feel comfortable investing if they don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. That’s our focus.
Through that, I believe that you have created courses for investors. Can you talk about some of the things that you’ve created to help people to get educated?
Passive Investing Syndication: There are millions of us out there that are trying to accomplish the same thing. It takes grit to greatness to try to achieve greatness.
We’ve created a five-day email course that fast-tracked an individual’s way to passive investing. A lot of people, when they think about investing in real estate, they think about being a landlord or answering that phone call at 2:00 in the morning. They don’t necessarily want to do that. A lot of people are looking for opportunities to invest passively as they would in the stock market or any other opportunity. With real estate, you have an actual tangible building that can afford you the opportunity to receive cashflow. Our email course, once you sign up for it, it will send you information for five days that you can learn about the ways that we are investing in real estate.
It will fast track you to understand what it means to invest passively. We’re extremely excited about that. I’ll break down what it looks like, as far as the different days. The first day, you’ll learn a little bit about why real estate is a smart investment. Day two, the difference between active and passive investing. On day three, you’ll learn about syndication, how syndication work and a peek at a real live deal, some of the deals that we’re going to be investing in. Day four, how to get clarity on your vision for the future and understanding how to set your goals, as far as investing passively in real estate. Day five, a step by step process of syndication and how it can help you achieve your goals. We want to make sure that we’re setting those goals in place for you to understand what your investment goals are and then teaching you how to go about investing passively with the Vidente Capital.
You nailed it. I think that syndication is like a mystical unicorn. People have heard about it, but they don’t know enough about it. We want to demystify things to educate people and let them know that this is something that truly is life-changing. The fact that you can get all the benefits of investing in real estate without having to do any of the work because people make real estate looks sexy, but the reality is it is not. I can lead a lot to the buyer. The fact that you can invest passively is great.
As you look back over your real estate journeys, what would you say are some of the lessons that you feel that you’ve learned along the way?
Syndication is like a mystical unicorn. People have heard about it but they don't know enough about it. Share on XRefining how to analyze deals and the importance of running the numbers. One of my biggest regrets in real estate was there was this property that I was excited about in New Jersey. It was a probing property. For those of you that don’t know, it’s a debt settlement. There are several children. They were going to inherit their parents’ house and they wanted their money. The repair estimate came back $20,000 to $30,000 higher than I had initially anticipated. My realtor, who was not a realtor who had experienced with investors was more focused on single-family. She didn’t have a handle on the numbers from an investor standpoint. Looking back, it would have been perfectly still, even if it was $20,000 to $30,000 more. It was a duplex in an appreciating market. The numbers still made sense, but she suggested, “They threatened to cancel the contract if they don’t reduce the price.” They’re like, “We’re not reducing the price.” That was the end. I walked away my head between my legs and my tail between my legs and I was like, “That’s it.” It didn’t have to be. Educating yourself, understanding what you’re getting into, and knowing the numbers and how they work, what your cashflow would be and what the ARV is if you’re doing renovations. I encourage people to educate themselves.
What you’re saying here leads into my next question, which is what the advice you would give for people interested in starting in real estate is?
To piggyback on your last question a little bit, I wanted to tell you a little story. My dad used to always say, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” I’m sure he does not intend for this to be the case, but I was an early riser and so was he. Everyone else in our house likes to sleep in. I was a shadow. He never got out of the house without me but that carried over into adulthood. Partly out of necessity for work and partly out of habit. I’m an early riser. It’s nice to be able to know that I’ve checked things off of my to-do list nice and early. One of the challenges in business is having enough time in the day to get the things that you need to be done. Amber has four children. I still don’t know how she does it, but she does. We’re doing business to try and stay on top of things.
One of the things that we realized is that we need to feed off of each other’s talents. Whatever Lillie’s good at, she’s good at. Let’s focus on that. If there are things that I’m good at or not good at what she can do and vice versa. That’s one thing that we tried to make sure that we hone in on and delegate those different things that we need to get done. We are making sure that we’re focused on the things that we enjoy doing. We’re pushing heavily on our social media, our website making sure that we’re driving traffic. I enjoy social media stuff. Lillie enjoys creating and writing some of that content. We play on that. The other thing is that we have hired a virtual assistant, to help us by making sure that we are delegating some of those things out where we can personally focus on the money-making activity and focusing on the day-to-day operations. That has helped us scale from a tremendous amount and we’re looking forward to growing in that capacity. We’re focusing on what we’re good at and making sure that we’re developing that and the things that we’re not good at. Either sourcing that outward or figuring out a way to make it happen, in that regard. Lillie and everybody always say, “You have four kids, how do you do it?”
Passive Investing Syndication: No matter what you’re doing in life, there’s always a mentor. There’s always a coach. There’s always someone that you can learn from.
I don’t believe in work-life balance anymore. I think it’s a matter of if this is something that you’re passionate about, you figure out a way to incorporate it into your life in general. This is a real estate and investing in real estate is part of our lives. I teach my kids that this is the route that we’re taking and this creates a lifestyle that they want, not only now but hopefully, the lifestyle that they can continue to live and then teach their children. I have an eighteen-year-old and I always tell my eighteen-year-old Lillie’s story about house hacking right out of college. Taking advantage of that FHA loan and get net fourplex and not necessarily having to worry about rent because the other people are paying their work. I think it’s a matter of when it comes to balancing everything in general, you incorporate it, focus on the things that you’re talented at and outsourcing the things that you’re not.
Touching on that, when you all got ready to hire your first VA, what was that process like for you guys?
We came across a company that was helpful because they have systems in place to support the VA. That was nice. For us, it was a matter of figuring out exactly what we want the VA to do and putting and creating systems that make it easy for the VA to be able to do those things. It’s one thing to say, “Go create blog posts.” You have to have a vision of what you want them to look like. You have to have step by step instructions on how to access certain accounts and different things. I think honing in on what tasks were better left for the VA versus what tasks were left for us. That can be challenging and it changes day-to-day. We created a Google drive. We update it regularly so that we know what everyone’s working on, what needs to be done, what’s the priority and having all of our documents in one place so that we’re not constantly scouring through trying to make things work.
When we’re talking about creating systems, systems create wealth. Lillie is good at making sure that all of our ducks are in a row and that there’s a system in place. We’ve talked about this often, as far as Lillie and I are concerned. A lot of people wind up failing at this business or any business for that matter because they don’t put a system in place to make sure that they’re going to succeed. Everybody dreams about being in real estate or investing in real estate or other businesses, but without an actual system, how can you measure success? How can you make sure that you are successful? It all comes down to systems. Lillie and I have been able to put together a system that works for us to make sure that we’re successful and what it is that we’re trying to do.
Systems create wealth. Share on XTreat it like a business, even in the beginning stages because a lot of people try and treat real estate as a hobby then they wonder why they’re not successful at it. If you start from day one, doing things by the book, getting your accountant, your bookkeeper, all those things lined up, having an LLC. Treating it like a business and growing into it because everything’s not going to come naturally from the beginning. As you grow, you’ll create more systems and things will be smoother. I think starting from day one is helpful.
How important would you say mentorship and coaching have been for you?
For me, it’s been invaluable honestly. I don’t think we would be where we are without it. I think that you can easily buy a duplex or you can flip a house and have to read a book or two. When you get to do syndication and you’re looking at these large fields and you’re raising money, you have to have the support of someone who’s been through it. Coaching has been great for us and it helped us to see things the way we needed to and grow how we should.
I’ve mirrored Lillie’s enthusiasm and sentiment in that regard, because no matter what you’re doing in life, there’s always a mentor. There’s always a coach. There’s always someone that you can learn from. If you think about athletes in general, unfortunately, we lost one of the greatest athletes of all time. If you think about individuals that are on the court, on the field that is consistently working on their craft, they always have a coach. They always have someone that’s pushing them. They always have someone that’s coaching them. Even in this business, if you don’t have a coach or if you don’t have someone that’s guiding you that’s better than you in the industry, then you might want to rethink what you’re doing. As we teach our kids, there are millions of us out there that are trying to accomplish the same thing. It takes grit to greatness to try to achieve greatness. That’s what we’re all about. We’re not necessarily trying to be the best in the industry, but trying to provide the best service. I’m extremely excited about what 2020 has to bring. I am looking forward to tremendous success and helping people achieve their goals.
Is there any advice or maybe there’s any question I didn’t ask or something that you think that the audience would benefit from knowing that you’d like to share with the audience?
Anyone who’s interested in investing actively, educate yourself. Join your local meetups and talk to other investors, learn your market and understand the numbers. For those that are interested in investing passively, they can align themselves with an operator like Vidente Capital. We have the passive investor course and you can find that on our website, www.VidenteCapital.com. You can follow us on social media and see what we have going on. One thing that I will say is that if you are serious about investing passively that you would need to join our investor course, which is free. You will need to schedule a call so that we can go over your goals and get to know more about you and what you want to do with real estate. In that way, we can be SECcompliant as well, so that we can have you in our database, learn more about deals as they become available.
I’ll piggyback off of what Lillie said. They say your network is your net worth. I built a small business prior to joining Lillie with Vidente Capital. I remember my first networking event like it was yesterday. Because I’ve built such a large network over the years, I can go back to those individuals and let them know what I’m trying to accomplish with the Vidente and the work that we’re trying to do here. We encourage people to invest passively. Your network is truly your net worth. Get out there and network with individuals, whether it be in your local community or different meetups. Looking for what the future has to bring for us. Thanks for having us.
Vidente is Spanish. Do both of you speak Spanish?
We don’t, but our grandfather was from the Dominican Republic. He died before we were born. We never got a chance to meet him, unfortunately. It’s always been something that I’ve been super passionate about. I started learning in elementary schools like everybody else. I took it a little more seriously because I had that background. I worked in New York, then I went to grad school in Puerto Rico. One of my tenants speaks Spanish all the time. It’s surrounding me. It’s been ever-evolving and it’s great. It’s been awesome.
I’m excited that I was able to have both of you on the show to learn more about your business, how you got started. For you to share with my audience the opportunities that your business provides for them to invest in real estate passively. To do that with people who understand and have a desire to give back to those communities as well as to grow wealth through real estate. I want to say the way I met both of these ladies. I was at a Mastermind for women, which breakfast that took place at the beginning of Rod Khleif’s conference here in Los Angeles. Both ladies were attending the luncheon and that’s how I got to meet them. The reality is there are not a lot of black females in this industry playing in real estate. When you go to an event and you see other black women, you’re like, “There are some other black ladies there.” It’s beautiful to know that there are other women of color playing in this space and continuing to support and be able to provide opportunities to everyone. Thank you, ladies. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the show.
Thank you. It’s nice to meet you.
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That was an amazing episode with Lillie and Amber. I am grateful for them for allowing me to interview them and to share their story on my show. I hope that you got a lot of great insights from them sharing their story. First of all, these two are powerhouse women. Demanding careers, very successful at their own right. They have active families. Amber is a mom. She has four kids and building a real estate investing business that is focused on helping people to get a return on their investment, on their money. They are helping other people while they are doing investing for good. Some of the things that I took away from this episode was that how both of them are impacted by Rich Dad Poor Dad, and how that framed their mindset to invest in real estate and play at the level that they are playing. I love how Lillie uses master leases. That’s amazing, going out and their house hacking while renting. Having the opportunity of getting that experience underneath her belt as she continues to scale up from smaller to large multifamily.
This is my first time interviewing both partners on the team. Being able to interview both of them, it is beautiful to see that they complement each other. Amber brings to the table her knowledge of real estate from a government-regulated standpoint, as well as development. Lillie brings to the table her experience of house hacking and having her multifamily complexes and the investment that she has done. Together, they are synergizing in building this business and tag-teaming the different parts of it to build it together. That’s one of the biggest things. If you are reading some of these blogs, I keep getting time and time again about building that team and not doing things alone. These ladies are amazing. They also talked about mentoring and coaching, how invaluable it has been to get that support from someone else who has done it before. I hope this show provides you with that and helps you realize that doing it by yourself isn’t necessarily the answer. There are a lot of amazing people out there that you can be partnered with that will help in that way as well.
Putting an employee system is important if you want to build a business. They talked about putting a system. Through that, that’s how they were able to hire a VA to help them as they continue to scale and build their business. The last item that they spoke about that I thought was amazing was Amber talked about how grit is needed to get towards greatness and ultimately achieve greatness. It is true. In the period that you are trying to create and build something, it is going to require gritness, perseverance, consistency and the ability to not give up in the phase of things being challenging and not working. They also spoke about the course that they have launched for passive investors, providing them a step by step way of getting an education to get comfortable and be able to determine how it is that they want to invest.
These are amazing ladies to watch. I also love interviewing people who are African-Americans and black women because I am a black woman. I love going to the events and seeing people who look like me, who are doing this, who are potential people I can partner with and I can talk to on my show. Potential people who are doing amazing things in life and helping themselves and their community to achieve whatever they imagined, dream, and envision. It is a beautiful episode and I hope you all enjoy it. Keep leveling up. Until next time, bye.
Important Links:
- Vidente Capital
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- [email protected]
- https://www.Facebook.com/Videntecapital/
- https://www.Instagram.com/videntecapital/
- https://www.VidenteCapital.com/
About Lillie Manon
CEO and Owner – Lillie is a Nurse Anesthetist by trade and has been in the real estate investing space just over 10 yrs and has a portfolio of small multifamily properties in Central Connecticut and has recently expanded to purchase large multifamily properties and commercial real estate in emerging markets.
About Amber Little Turner
Investor Relations – Amber worked with former PA State Rep Harry Lewis, Jr as a constituent outreach specialist helping real estate professionals and developers cut through government red tape in the efforts to revitalize the City of Coatesville. She brings a unique private and public sector perspective to real estate investing and has made it her life’s work to be involved in multiple non-profit organizations.
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