
Show Summary
Dylan Silver interviews Peter Fisher, a seasoned financial advisor and co-founder of Sequent Real Estate and Wealth Management. They discuss the integration of real estate into investment portfolios, focusing on strategies for retirement income through passive real estate investments. Peter explains the benefits of Delaware Statutory Trusts and REITs, the importance of networking and mentorship in the real estate industry, and offers advice for new graduates looking to enter the field. The conversation emphasizes the transition from active to passive investment strategies and the significance of building relationships in raising capital for real estate ventures.
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Dylan Silver (00:00.642)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Iโm your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show I have Peter Fisher. Peter is a seasoned financial advisor and co-founder of Sequent Real Estate and Wealth Management. With over 20 years of experience, Peter specializes in tax advantaged real estate strategies, including Delaware statutory trusts, REITs, opportunity zones, and other private placements. Peter, welcome to the show.
Peter Fisher (00:29.449)
Thank you for having me.
Dylan Silver (00:32.11)
Absolutely, I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.
Peter Fisher (00:40.541)
Yeah, so when I graduated university from Indiana University, I was able to take a position with a large institutional real estate group out of Chicago that specialized in securitized real estate strategies for individual clients. they were a real estate sponsor. And five years ago, my business partner and I
started Sequent Real Estate plus Wealth Management. We really saw a gap in the financial services industry to sort of marry real estate with investment portfolios. And thatโs how I got started right out of the gate in 2005.
Dylan Silver (01:33.462)
And so this is a very interesting area. Thereโs so many ways where I could go with this. I think about one of the previous guests that I had a couple of weeks back was in self-directed IRAs using that as a vehicle for real estate investment. But I believe and I think this is such an interesting topic because so many people of course think about the stock market as the main way, the main vehicle for retirement.
and very few people other than their primary residents to the masses that is look at real estate as a way where you know that they can retire off of and i would love to see more people get involved in that of course being a realtor myself having this show i would love to see everybody get involved but itโs awesome to see that this folks like you out there that are bringing that traditional background at two folks so they can have access to itโs a real estate wealth
Peter Fisher (02:28.861)
Yeah, you talk about retirement, whatโs the greatest need in retirement for most families is income. And a lot of these families have built real estate portfolios during their active investing years. And in that life cycle change of retiring, we want to relax, spend time with the grandchildren. And we provide that solution by
taking their investment property, theyโre going to do a 1031 tax deferred exchange and exchange that into passive investment strategies, which are hands off. The specific investment that we use most frequently is the Delaware Statutory Trust. And this is a investment vehicle thatโs professionally managed. It is a like kind asset based on a revenue ruling going back to 2004.
But itโs hands off real estate for individuals looking for income. And these are large institutional properties. So you can take your single family rental and you can exchange that for a large institutional asset. And as a financial advisor in those types of situations, weโre looking at diversification. Do you want?
This is modern portfolio theory at its best. Do you want all your eggs in one basket? So weโre going to take these real estate portfolios that are concentrated typically and diversify them out throughout the country and throughout asset class.
Dylan Silver (04:12.046)
So this is very interesting to me, Peter. So this is all brand new to me. So Iโm gonna ask some questions. We might go down a rabbit hole here, so bear with me here. your clients, are these folks who already have real estate? You mentioned single family and then exchanging. They already have real estate.
Peter Fisher (04:30.377)
Yes, thereโs two components to our business. Again, weโre financial planners, but our company says it all. Sequent real estate plus wealth management. So those two components are real estate, and then we also build investment portfolios with a goal in mind a lot of times, right? Every clientโs different, but
The goal in mind for a lot of the families we work with is generational wealth transfer. So theyโre thinking, how do I retire and take back my time? And then how do I pass this wealth onto the next generation in a tax efficient manner? Those are sort of two big points that come to the table when we talk to our clients and what their goals are.
A lot of clients do come to us with real estate portfolios. And their challenge is, I donโt want to do this anymore. Iโve spent 10, 20, 30, 40 years managing these properties, dealing with tenants and everything that comes with it. How do I get out of this real estate? Without the tax liability, and I should really say that weโre deferring tax.
removing the tax liability. Thereโs two guarantees in life, death and taxes. So weโre helping these individuals transition to that second stage, that new life cycle, where theyโre able to maintain real estate ownership, defer tax, and receive passive income during retirement.
Dylan Silver (06:21.514)
Okay, so effectively theyโre able to have a lot of the benefits of owning the real estate that they owned without having to have the downside, which is the time consuming and the management.
Peter Fisher (06:33.064)
Exactly, right? If you want to really simplify this, they are maintaining real estate ownership and they no longer have the day-to-day operation.
Dylan Silver (06:42.51)
Thatโs fantastic. I think a lot of people arenโt even aware that thatโs a possibility, right? Itโs like, Iโve heard people say, you know, little bit of a pivot here, Peter, but Iโve heard people say, I wanna be an Airbnb host, but I donโt love to be a Airbnb host, meaning I like the money from the Airbnb, but I donโt necessarily wanna be dealing with all these issues, changeover, cleaning, bookings, know, damage, yada, yada, yada.
Pivoting Peter though, one of the things that you mentioned as well was that not all of these people are coming to you with an active real estate portfolio. So are you also helping folks who are not current real estate investors, and Iโve never done that before, get into real estate investing?
Peter Fisher (07:23.561)
Yes, this is an area that we work with a lot with clients. The big challenge when you, as an individual, say, well, I want to buy real estate. OK. What does that entail? How much money do you need? Where is the property going to be located? Do you need a loan to purchase an asset? And then whoโs going to manage that real estate?
So clients do come to us and weโre able to place them into a variety of different securitized real estate strategies. Whether that is a Delaware statutory trust, whether itโs a real estate investment trust, we have that capability to take individuals into the real estate world and they can build a real estate portfolio with us for their lifetime.
Or they can start with us and build up to enough equity where they can eventually go buy a property on their own and manage it.
Dylan Silver (08:27.03)
Now Peter, selfishly, I have looked at REITs in the past and Iโve owned a couple REITs, I believe fractionally. And whatโs interesting for me is being in the real estate game, I would say physically as a real estate wholesaler and as a realtor here in Dallas, and then also seeing the REITs.
Iโm curious to what your take is and maybe youโre limited in what kind of feedback you can provide and I understand that. for folks who are comparing REITs versus like letโs call it an index fund, right? How do these two things compare and how would an everyday person evaluate a REIT?
Peter Fisher (09:05.81)
Sure. So a real estate investment trust is often referred to as a mutual fund of properties. The reality is itโs a portfolio of physical brick and mortar assets that are typically geographically diverse and valued in the billions of dollars. So these are large institutional properties.
When we look at REITs at Sequin, weโre looking at these larger portfolios of institutional assets that are managed by extremely reputable sponsors. And to give an example, one of the sponsors that we work with is a group called Cantor Fitzgerald. Now, Cantor Fitzgerald is a name that many of us know. They were in the news after
after 9-11, unfortunately. And theyโre one of the largest investment banks in the world, but they offer Delaware statutory trusts, and they offer real estate investment trusts on our platform. The real estate investment trusts that they offer are what are called non-traded REITs. So when you look at a REIT, real estate investment trust can be a, it is a public company.
meaning it has the same filing requirements that Apple or Google or any other public entity does. But as a public company, you have a choice to be a traded company or a non-traded company. So traded mean that itโs on an exchange, right? It can actually be included in some of the indexes that you may own. A non-traded REIT does not trade. So you get less volatility.
You get more consistent valuations and itโs not tied to the stock.
Dylan Silver (11:06.54)
Hmm. How do people get involved in the books?
Peter Fisher (11:08.721)
You know, how do you get involved? You go through somebody like me, a financial advisor that has relationships with these real estate sponsors that manage the REITs. know, Cantor Fitzgerald has this multi-billion dollar REIT that we have access to that our clients utilize for real estate diversification and tax deferral.
Dylan Silver (11:19.948)
Okay, thatโs super cool. Yeah.
Dylan Silver (11:34.296)
Hmm. You know, when I think about this area, Peter, it reminds me of some of the guests that Iโve had on who talk about thereโs this
syndications is one way that people can invest in real estate as kind of a hands off without having to handle you know the management day to day. Iโve also heard of this fractional investing in real estate. There was two gentlemen that I had separate companies one did luxury real estate investing fractionally in California and all over the world. And this is another opportunity for people to gain exposure to.
to the real estate space in a way that I wasnโt aware that they could.
Peter Fisher (12:19.475)
Yes, this is fractional ownership. And you mentioned the word syndication. The products that we utilize are not syndications. Theyโre securities. And the real big difference there is regulation. So every product that we work with and every sponsor that we work with are security firms, meaning that weโre regulated by FINRA and the SEC.
So thereโs just that little bit of difference of oversight. And for me personally, it gives me more confidence working with a sponsor that is regulated by FINRA and the SEC than a peer syndication.
Dylan Silver (13:03.032)
Sure.
Peter pivoting here, different subject, growing a business and then raising capital, right?
As someone in this space, of course, youโre an asset manager and folks who are many of listening to our show are in the single or multifamily space. They may be fix and flippers. They may be trying to syndicate and raise money for a deal. And Iโve had other folks who may be not doing what youโre doing, but are in a similar field, give their feedback on growing a business and on raising capital as someone who manages assets. What would be your advice to to someone who may be having done a couple flips and theyโre
trying to expand and theyโre maybe looking at how can I raise capital for additional flips.
Peter Fisher (13:48.999)
Yeah, thatโs raising capital is always the biggest challenge and depending on the size of your organization, youโre going to get more or less attention. But you have to have a very clean property and very clean financials. The first thing that Iโm going to look at anytime somebody brings me an offering, Iโm going to go straight to the financials. And I want to see that youโre covering
your cost, your obligations, and that you have stable cash flow coming out of that investment.
Dylan Silver (14:28.59)
So you have people coming to you all the time basically saying, letโs invest in our deal.
Peter Fisher (14:34.321)
Yes. Yes.
Dylan Silver (14:35.68)
Okay, so youโre the perfect person to talk to about this. So, the avatar really of our listener is someone whoโs in that singular multifamily space and a lot of times looking to scale, right? And you get to a point where youโre up againstโฆ
youโve basically depleted your nest egg or not depleted, but you realize youโre depleting it. And in order to keep growing, you have to now look for investors. And for a lot of people, this is not in their wheelhouse, right? Up to this point in time, their skill set has been maybe Iโm a contractor and Iโm doing this as an investor, or maybe Iโm an investor and Iโve figured out how to be a contractor. And now I have to learn this whole other skill set of raising money, which isโฆ
Thereโs whole groups dedicated to this, right? Iโm curious, do you think that this is a skill set that someone can pick up? Is it very time consuming to do so? Do you think itโs better to partner with someone who maybe has that background?
Peter Fisher (15:32.945)
Itโs always better to partner with somebody who has that background if itโs not an expertise that you have. Thatโs going to gain confidence for potential investors. And in that situation youโre describing, who are the first investors? Itโs typically friends and family.
And you definitely donโt want to fail when you have friends and family involved. So it really depends on how you promote your investment. Is this a high return investment or is this a conservative stabilized investment? So just making that indication early on to your potential investors will pay dividends in the future.
Dylan Silver (16:20.286)
I heard itโs amazing how this transpires, right? I was at a local event here in Dallas where a lady was speaking about how she got her first investor and it wasnโt a friend or family. So it was that that circle of, I guess you could say the way that she put it, I believe is they didnโt know all the things that Iโve been doing up to this point. So they werenโt as skeptical, but they also didnโt know me. So I had to prove
myself to them itโs almost a a gift and a curse when youโre doing with friends and family because they know all the successes they know all the failures so thatโs sometimes difficult but then of course with relative stranger with a stranger you know they donโt know you so you have to build that trust and she was explaining that basically she met this person i believe i want to was even like at the gym and that they ended up doing multiple deals together and through that personโs network
He was basically a bridge to other investors where she was able to raise additional capital. And when I think about this, Iโm very, very passionate about networking. call it guerrilla networking or fanatical networking. You you really have no idea, especially as someone whoโs not necessarily from a background of capital raising, which connection that you make is gonna be the one that changes the trajectory of your business. So I tend to think, Peter, like if youโre notโฆ
If you donโt know how to raise capital, the best thing that you can do is just constantly be telling everybody, this is what Iโm doing, and then just keep making connections and fingers, this sounds a little crazy, but fingers crossed, you come across someone whoโs gonna change your business just with intentional daily effort.
Peter Fisher (18:03.955)
Absolutely, and if you have a solid investment plan Youโre going to attract investors that want to be in that space with you
Dylan Silver (18:15.13)
Peter, when I think about just the career path of what Iโm doing, which is real estate wholesale, Iโm a real estate agent, oftentimes it starts out with networking. I remember I was working for a Nissan dealership in South Texas in San Antonio, spending all of my time there. And eventually I saw down the line, Iโd like to own real estate. You know, thereโs different ways where people can do that if youโre just starting out, but I started out networking, wholesaling.
Now Iโm a real estate agent. Iโm looking to get my first couple flips. Iโve seen flippers then go into short term, midterm, like corporate housing. Of course youโve got annual leases. From there people might get into hard money lending or note buying. All different types of avatars, maybe even commercial or medical office space. Thereโs so many different paths in this business. When you were starting out, Peter, did you see like the five, 10, 20 year goal?
And did you know that you would be where you are today?
Peter Fisher (19:16.167)
When I started out, did I see the five, 10, 20, did I think I was gonna be here in 20 years doing what Iโm doing today? You know, itโs a hard question. I certainly wanted to be successful in what I did. And in those early days, Dylan, itโs the same that you said. Itโs all about networking. Itโs all about picking up the phone and talking to the right people.
going to industry events, you have to put yourself out there.
Dylan Silver (19:50.318)
I guess this is an interesting question here. for, letโs call it college graduates, business maybe, or accounting, and theyโre looking at following a similar path, recent college graduates, what general advice would you have for them?
Peter Fisher (20:09.33)
Advice for recent college graduates, itโs such a different world than it was 20 years ago. Today, everythingโs about social media.
So for college graduates, just make sure that you are out there networking. Thatโs going to be the name of the game, getting your face in front of the right individuals. Find a mentor. Thatโs probably my number one piece of advice, is find somebody that you
Connect with, find somebody that is in the industry you want to be in and mentor with them, learn from them. Thatโs going to be the key to your success.
Dylan Silver (21:00.568)
Peter, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to get a hold of you?
Peter Fisher (21:06.365)
Visit our website, Sequent Real Estate Plus Wealth Management, itโs sequence-rewm.com. And feel free to connect to us through there.
Dylan Silver (21:23.0)
Peter, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.
Peter Fisher (21:27.251)
Thank you Dylan, I appreciate it.