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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Erika speaks with Ben Reinberg, a seasoned real estate investor and entrepreneur. Ben shares his journey into the world of commercial real estate, emphasizing the importance of hard assets in building wealth. He discusses the current market challenges, including a lack of liquidity and competitive spaces, while offering valuable advice for beginners looking to enter the industry. The conversation also highlights the significance of relationships and mindset in achieving success in real estate.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (00:00)
we’ve been told the lie about money.Erika we’ve been told to work hard, to earn, ⁓ to save, and to hope. And I’m here to tell you that is not a feasible strategy. know, having your money set in a savings account is not feasible anymore. Why? Well, it’s the opportunity cost that’s drained.
from money sitting in a savings account, it’s inflations and it’s taxes. And when you look at all these factors, you realize that the best way to get your money working is through hard assets. And it’s why investors from all over the world invest in Alliance
Erika Proctor (02:15)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Erika and today I’m excited to be chatting with Ben Reinberg. He’s been shaking things up in the real estate world with his company, Alliance Consolidated Group of Companies. Ben, it’s awesome to have you on the show today.Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (02:34)
Thank you, Erika. I appreciate being on and look forward to adding a lot of value to you and your audience.Erika Proctor (02:40)
Yes, absolutely. And that’s why I’m excited to jump on in. First off, Ben, can you share more about what your journey was like into real estate?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (02:49)
Well, Erika, I started 32 years ago and coming from Chicago, I didn’t come from wealth, but I would see wealth around me and in the area where I lived. And when I did my research, we used to read newspapers and go to the library. would see that ⁓ families like the Crowns and the Pritzker’s and the Zell’s were very successful. And I wanted to see how do you build wealth? How does someone, you know, createthe lifestyle that you deserve and that you want in this lifetime. And it was through the power of hard assets. And hard assets was prevalent in all these different families and all these billionaire families from around the world.
And I said, well, what’s the number one asset that I want to look at? What hard asset? And so my love is through commercial real estate. And so what I realized over time is
we’ve been told the lie about money.
Erika we’ve been told to work hard, to earn, ⁓ to save, and to hope. And I’m here to tell you that is not a feasible strategy. know, having your money set in a savings account is not feasible anymore. Why? Well, it’s the opportunity cost that’s drained.
from money sitting in a savings account, it’s inflations and it’s taxes. And when you look at all these factors, you realize that the best way to get your money working is through hard assets. And it’s why investors from all over the world invest in Alliance
and what we do, because it’s not only our track record, but they realize we educate them that the power of hard assets is tremendous to building wealth.
Great tax benefits. ⁓
the ability to produce great cash flow as well as upside on investments. And so for me, I learned a long time ago that getting involved in building wealth, it’s a marathon business. And if you learn, you can perfect it. I’m in the prime of my career. It’s a stacking business. It’s stacking and constantly stacking knowledge to get better and better. And it’s like wine. You own it long enough that it matures. And that’s what being
a businessman or woman in commercial real estate does. You get to a point where you can look at a property or acquisition and know exactly, that fit my criteria? What are going to be the issues? What do I have to look at? What are the fundamentals? How do I protect my downside? How do I protect the capital that’s investing with me to be a good fiduciary of my capital? So we look at all these factors and that’s the beautiful thing about commercial real estate. There’s a high barriers to entry. ⁓ I’ve been in it for a long time. People ask me, well, how have I,
sustained myself in commercial real estate with all the different recessions and government changes and you name it. And I said, well, first of all, it depends on the asset class because in medical, the human body never goes out of style. You need to pivot and you need to look at the markets to see what you want to invest in. But the key to commercial real estate, and I say this a lot, I’m on a lot of TV shows and podcasts, is the ability to hold.
The ability to hold, the ability to hold, and the ability to hold will ride you through any cycles. See, Erika, everyone thinks cash flows just ascend. But the reality is cash flows are like moguls. And when cash flows are like moguls, you need to have enough reserves. You need understand how to deal with challenges. You need to understand how to manage your tenants, as well as the property and improvements, and really make sure you can maximize cash flow. And then to add another layer to that, if you’re going to put leverage, debt, on your properties,
How do you deal with your lenders? What kind of flexibilities? How you deal with your loan covenants? ⁓ What kind of debt are you getting? And so we look at all these factors. This is why having 200 plus years of leadership team experience outside Ben Reinberg is extremely important when it comes to investing in commercial real estate. And it’s why people like to invest passively with us, Erika, because the learning curve is so steep to get into our business, especially in the different niches we’re in.
And so with that being said, it’s really important to know what you’re doing and to be able to protect your downside. And so I got in the business and we started building and syndicating and had great success. My first deal was a 95,000 square foot industrial building in the Chicagoland area. Did very well. I three X’d the profit to our investors after losing a tenant in the first week that hammered 50 % of my cashflow. And so.
Instead of panicking, what I did was I pivoted and I took a step back and say, how do we fix this challenge, which we did. So then we 3X’d ⁓ the profit to our investors, but the lesson wasn’t in the 3X. It’s what I bring here today. It’s the knowledge. It’s going through the experience. It’s the learning what I did from the transaction. And that’s what I share with my audiences. And so
It’s not about the return, it’s about the lessons that come out of it. So if you read my new book, Hard Assets and Hard Money for Hard Times, you’ll see it’s not about me. I didn’t write this book about me. I spent a year writing it to be about you, the people out there listening and out in the ether and out in the universe to know. And I share war stories. I share that this is real stuff, that yeah, we’ve had some deals that haven’t gone well. No one shares that.
They tell you about all their wins. We’re going to tell you about some of the challenges we had. That way I could put you high in the learning curve. And then after a point in time, I said to my team, said, you know, this book is great. It’s evergreen. It’s for Ben Reinberg, who started 32 years ago to the billionaire. So anyone can pick up the book and use it. It’s an evergreen book where you could pick it up every day, every week to look at your hard asset blueprint. Cause the hard asset blueprint is the key to building wealth.
It’s in the book. It’s also on my website, benreinberg.com. And so I said to my team, I said, let’s go a step deeper. So we developed four levels of courses, 101 to 401, to bring the book to life, to show you how to build your hard asset blueprint, using the blueprint and how to use it, showing how to build wealth, how to find resilient cash flow strategies and investment strategies. And so we teach this all in the coursework and every
course, every level gets harder and harder. And you can get certified to be to teach it as well if you want. And so this was my way to help people because when I 32 years ago, I was lost, I didn’t know how do I build wealth? How do I create an empire? You know, no one really teaches it. I said, well, I’m going to step up and teach and explain my experiences and show my war stories and tell people, hey, it’s not for the faint of heart to build a hard ass an empire.
By the way, it’s not so easy. By the way, the last chapter is on mindset. How are you going to show up? Who do you want to be as a person? And when I look at all these factors, I see it and I say to myself, okay, this ⁓ is what I need to do. And so it’s my way of giving back. And so my career now, I’m in the prime of my career. ⁓ We’re office, industrial retail, and now multifamily specialists.
and in the office sector, one the leaders of medical office. And so that’s my story.
Erika Proctor (11:22)
That’s exciting. Wow, Ben. And I’m sure as you know, for many people, the hardest thing can just be starting. So people who are in that position, what kind of advice would you give them?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (11:36)
Well, the first thing I would do is pick up my book because that will help you get started and you got to pull the trigger and get started. And my suggestion would be if you’re going to do commercial real estate, start locally, which I teach because all your resources are locally. It’s also cheaper to instead of getting on a plane and spending money and going to look at a property and then also use other people’s money, raise money to buy a deal, to procure a deal.and you’ll see great success, but you gotta be resilient and gotta be persistent. And that’s what happens.
Erika Proctor (12:07)
space you with all your experience what kind of opportunities and challenges are you seeing there?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (12:13)
Well, there’s been a lack of liquidity, a lack of deal flow from 2022. Investment sales was down from 2022 to 2023 by 80%, which we’ve never seen. There’s trillions of dollars of loans coming due. So lenders have been very cautious and conservative in what they’re willing to do. And so between the lack of liquidity, you see a challenge to get deals done.Erika Proctor (12:37)
there we’re still connected that’s ⁓ Ben when it comes to the different markets that you’re operating in that you have properties what are you noticing there? Are there certain areas where you’re doing different strategies?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (12:56)
It depends on the asset class. know, multifamily, we’re looking in certain areas, certain cities to invest in. Other areas for medical office, we’ll look at high growth area, dense areas, areas that are building roots where they’re pro-business growth environments as well. So we’re looking in certain areas for certain asset classes.Erika Proctor (13:18)
And Ben, is there a certain criteria or tools or systems that you use with looking for these properties?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (13:25)
Yeah, there is. mean, we have a certain acquisition criteria that we go out and promote to the brokerage community and sellers ⁓ for the different asset classes. Every asset class has different criteria.Erika Proctor (13:37)
⁓ Earlier Ben, you were talking about some of the challenges that you faced throughout your career and that’s part of your book. Can you share for our listeners a story that really shifted your approach or what you learned from it?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (13:58)
Well, when I was younger, I bought a large office campus and I put a significant amount of leverage on the property. And we ended up losing tenants on two of the floors. It was one of Warren Buffett’s trucking companies. And it triggered the loan and we had to go and work it out and be able to backfill the building and sell it and break even.But one thing it taught me, which I talked about in the book, is never over leverage your properties, because you have to have the ability to hold. Make sure you have plenty of equity, Erika, in your properties. And that was a lesson I learned a long time ago. So I’m very conscientious of the type of debt I put on a property, because I’d pay a lower return in order to have the ability to hold.
Erika Proctor (15:22)
of the future, Ben, what do you see? What opportunities are you excited about?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (15:26)
Well, I’m excited about medical office. Obviously, I’m excited about multifamily. I think there’s going to be great buying opportunities. And I’m excited about industrial. think industrial is really coming back strong. And I think there’s going to be some great opportunities to buy industrial.Erika Proctor (15:39)
Are there, you know, with those opportunities, you know, are you seeing challenges? Is it a competitive space?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (15:47)
Well, multifamily is a competitive space. Medical office is a competitive space. That’s why you got to rope your sleeves and perform and go out there and dig and find assets and especially in a tough environment. So it’s always competitive in the space we play, but it’s all about how bad you want it, how bad you want success, how bad you want to find opportunities for your capital. And you got to put the effort in. And so it’s not for the faint of heart, this business, but it’sAgain, it’s what do you want to do to find great assets?
Erika Proctor (16:18)
Yeah, and you know, how do you make yourself stand out? How do you get those deals done?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (16:25)
Well, for us, what we do is we cultivate great lending relationships. We find out who’s out there lending, and we like to deal with local banks and community banks and regional banks to make sure that we can close and that we could do what we say we’re going to do, but also have the flexibility in our loans and understand how to create a great loan for a property. And so a lot of that comes from experience and basically having the ability to close in a greatgreat track record that we’ve cultivated through the out years.
Erika Proctor (16:55)
Yeah, you talked about those relationships here. What kind of advice would you give for our listeners who are looking to level up and they know how important relationships are in real estate?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (17:06)
Well, we’re a relationship oriented business. It’s why we take a lot long time to adapt new technologies. And so at the end of the day, you have to work on yourself. You have to be kind. You have to be respectful. You gotta be a good listener. You gotta be an incredible communicator to be in this business. And it’s something I work on every day,Erika Proctor (17:25)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. One thing that I want to touch on that you said earlier is you said the last chapter of your book is about mindset. You know, what do you think our listeners should know about mindset? What is the takeaway there?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (17:43)
Well, it’s about how you’re to show up every day. How you’re going to show up on the phone or a video call with the person you’re talking about. What’s your listening skills? How great is your communication skills? What are things you have to heal from your childhood? What are the wounds you have that are going to affect you in your business and communicating in your relationships? These are all the things I work on. These are all the things I suggest. If you’re younger, get involved in personal development. It’s the best investment you can make in yourself.Erika Proctor (18:10)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Ben, this this has been great for our listeners here. If they want to connect, learn more about what you’re doing with your company or they’re interested in your book and courses, how should they reach you?Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (18:26)
Well, if you want to invest, you can go to AllianceCGC.com. That’s AllianceCGC.com and click invest now. We’ll have someone reach out to you so we could teach you how to build wealth for you and your family. You can invest passively. Great tax benefit. It’s great cash flow. If you are looking to buy the book, ⁓ you can buy it from my website, benreinberg.com If you’re looking to sign up for our newsletter, which is a blog, you can do that as well at benreinberg.com.You can ⁓ watch my new TV show, Ben Reinberg, I Own It. ⁓ All these resources are on benreinberg.com. The Hard Asset Blueprint, which goes with the book, is free. You can download it for free, which helps you and your family show you how to build wealth.
Erika Proctor (19:07)
Well, Ben, I appreciate your time, your story and coming on the show today. There’s a lot of great information for our listeners.Ben Reinberg – Alliancecgc.com (19:14)
Thank you, Eric, I appreciate the time.Erika Proctor (19:16)
And for our listeners, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with experts like Ben who are out there building incredible real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.
