ADU Cashflow Play: Adding Units on Big LA Lots for Bigger Rents & Better Returns

Share via:

• Facebook
• X (Twitter)
• LinkedIn
• More

Subscribe via:

Show Summary

In this conversation, Shayanne shares her journey in the competitive real estate market, emphasizing the importance of networking, resilience, and effective communication. She discusses her experiences with challenges in real estate transactions and highlights the role of social media, particularly LinkedIn, in her success. Shayanne also expresses her aspirations to expand her services and the significance of podcasting as a networking tool.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Shayanne Adujar on LinkedIn
    • Shayanne Adujar on Facebook
    • Shayanne Adujar on Instagram
    • Shayanne Adujar’s Email Address: [email protected]
    • Shayanne Adujar’s Phone Number: (213) 709-6065

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Shayanne (00:00)
  They want you to come in non-contingent. They want you to sometimes buy sight unseen, but the seller was pretty flexible with that. So it was a quick inspection. I made sure when he arrived to the inspection that he brought his contractor with him to kind of assess those renovation costs per the data that we have, and it definitely aligns. So yeah, he submitted his earning money, he harnessed money deposit that day.

  I think it was like 25,000 or something like that, like boom. And yeah, we ended up closing. He got the property, everybody got paid and then that was the end of that. Thank God, because I was sweating bullets.

  Erika (02:16)
  Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Erika and today I’m excited to be chatting with Shayanne Andujar. He’s been making serious moves as an agent in Los Angeles. Shayanne, I’m glad to have you here.

  Shayanne (02:32)
  Thank you for having me. truly appreciate it. It’s an honor to speak with you, Erika. How you doing today?

  Erika (02:37)
  I’m doing awesome. And I’m excited to, you know, hear more about your short story and for our listeners to learn more about what you’ve been doing in real estate as well. So, you know, first off, let’s dive into that story. Shayanne, can you share how you got started in real estate?

  Shayanne (02:58)
  Yeah, I mean, it was quite the journey. mean, I have a sales background spanning over 20 years. mean, I’m mainly in business development with, you know, different telecommunication companies, call centers, ⁓ cell phone subscription, magazine subscriptions, debt consolidations, college admissions. I mean, you name it. I sold it over that phone. But, you know, a lot of those skill sets.

  transferred over into real estate, right? And then about in 2016, when I fired my previous job, right? I decided to move to LA and transition into entertainment. I’ve dabbled in entertainment across that 20 year span of sales. So I did pretty well. I got into the acting, I got into producing, got into music, did over a hundred projects, got into the Screen Actors Guild as a member, got into the Television Academy as a member.

  So was doing my thing, but then when COVID hit, the pandemic kind of slowed business down on the entertainment side. So had to put my salesman hat back on and I was facilitating transaction between governments and hospitals to procure ⁓ personal protective equipment and ⁓ medical supplies to help fight against COVID. So did pretty well with that. But then when the pandemic stopped or slowed down, you will, know, business kind of slowed down as well. So we, as far as that was concerned. So

  We liquidated the assets and then I decided to get my real estate license just to kind of be in a ⁓ pandemic, COVID proof industry like real estate. So when I got my license, I interviewed with about 16 to 17 different brokerages before I decided to land with Keller Williams, Keller Bassett. So I hung my license there.

  And then I was doing my thing for a little bit and then I made a transition into a more of a boutique brokerage called Luxury Collective. They’re smaller than Keller Williams, but nevertheless, they’re smaller in the market that I’m in. mean, they have a large presence in the market that I’m in. So therefore, I saw it align with my goals. that’s how I got into real estate.

  Erika (06:01)
  That’s awesome. know, LA is a competitive market that you’re in. So that’s a really interesting place to, you know, make your mark in real estate. How are you standing out against the competition?

  Shayanne (06:16)
  Well, and you know what, was in the beginning, it was really difficult to identify how to do that, right? Because like you said, LA is a tough market. LA is one of those markets where there’s more agents and there are houses, right? You know, so and, ⁓ you know, really being a resource to not only ⁓ buyers and sellers, but to agents, you know, is where I want to thrive. So I decided to, you know, focus on off market properties only, you know, since

  You know, lot of agents, know, the top agents had all of the listings and, you know, buyers were, you know, at least traditional buyers were, you know, either afraid of the interest rates being so high and, you know, and wanting to wait till the interest rate drops and not having the money. So I decided to focus on off market properties, predominantly fix and flip opportunities, you know, finding those fixers or finding those development opportunities. And once I found that that was a niche I can.

  ⁓ you know, explore, I identified who the customer was and the customers were the investors and predominantly the cash investors who had the available liquidity to just, you know, deploy into opportunities that I sourced. So, you know, I found that that would be a strong niche to focus in on and, ⁓ not only be a resource to investors, but to agents as well, because, you know, for the agents that were

  in this market before me have clientele that I may not have access to that are interested in those opportunities. you know, being a value to both parties allowed me to, you know, stand out, if you will, in this market.

  Erika (07:59)
  Yeah, absolutely. And Shayanne, I know you work with a lot of investors. So can you share with our listeners what kind of opportunities you’re seeing for the investors that you work with in the Los Angeles area?

  Shayanne (08:13)
  I mean, it’s mainly like fix and flip opportunities. see a lot of like abandoned houses or run down houses that owners didn’t, you know, keep keep up with. So, you know, there’s a lot of value out there where an investor can come in, do some quick renovations and then put it on the market to sell again or to rent out, you know. And also ⁓ properties like that with large lots have an ability to add ⁓

  an ADU, is an additional dwelling unit to that same lot to where now you can have two houses on one lot as opposed to one, you know, to where that can also not only increase value, but add more cash flow to the the to the owner. You know, if they choose to to rent out both of those units now as opposed to only being able to rent out one, you know, so that’s that’s been becoming a thing where investors are seeking.

  a property with large lots like anything over 7,000 or over 10,000 square feet to where they can add an additional dwelling unit to that property and, you know, generate more cash flow.

  Erika (09:23)
  Yeah, property like that might be hard to come by sometimes. So, you know, how do you help with that?

  Shayanne (09:30)
  Well, I’m on the phones. So essentially, one of the resources that the brokerage I’m with offers is a software called Mojo to where it’s pretty much a robo-dialer where you can get your leads and ⁓ put it into the software and then just kind of let the machine just go. And it’s just dialing like three numbers at a time, whichever one picks up first, the dialer stops, you you do your pitch, talk to them. If it goes well, you schedule up a meeting, on to the next one.

  You know, it just kind of continues going on as opposed to dialing those numbers one by one, which could take more way more time. So yeah, so I leverage our softwares like that to identify, you know, the opportunities available and just kind of cold call and hunt, hunt for the deals, you know, and then that’s, that’s, that’s my method of execution. You know, I, I explored the door knocking opportunity, but you know, I like to dress really nice and it’s really hot.

  in California. being out there in a three-piece suit, sweating in front of somebody’s door, just, it’s not a good look. So yeah, my presence is over the phone.

  Erika (11:12)
  Speaking of ⁓ presence, you know, with like your background being involved in the entertainment industry, how has that, you know, shaped your approach to real estate?

  Shayanne (11:25)
  Well, it just allows me to get access that other people may not have, you when it goes to going to exclusive events or, you know, red carpet events, meeting with other directors, producers and other actors who have notoriety in entertainment and being able to represent them or offer them deals. You’d be surprised that, you know, a lot of those people in entertainment, their main source of income isn’t from entertainment. It’s usually real estate or tech or, you know, some sort of finance.

  and ⁓ entertainment just being an extracurricular activity. you know, again, being a resource to people like that and also having access to events and people like that, you know, allows me to be ⁓ more valuable to more people as opposed to just regular real estate investors, right? So, yeah, so that also helped out as well as…

  myself being a talent and being an acting or a podcaster allows me to build more brand awareness for myself to where I get more eyeballs on me and everything I’m doing, which can also attract different clientele.

  Erika (12:33)
  Yeah, with, you know, having, you know, access to celebrities and people in the entertainment industry, is that like your main form of networking that you would say in real estate or, you know, are there other groups that you have found to be helpful?

  Shayanne (12:52)
  Well, it’s a combination, know, because ultimately, you know, in real estate, you just talk to people, right? You know, everybody needs a place to live, whether you’re in entertainment, whether you’re in real estate, whether you’re a maintenance fan, whatever it is, right? So me, I’m just in the business of talking to people and networking and making my presence known. And then depending on who I’m talking to will determine how, you know, I introduce myself, right? If I’m speaking to someone.

  in entertainment, you know, I usually lead with my endeavors in entertainment as well as real estate. But if I’m talking to someone not in entertainment, I usually just lead with real estate and then throw in the entertainment later on if they, you know, want to learn a little bit more about me. ultimately, yeah, that’s that’s what was the question I’m sorry, I apologize.

  Erika (13:42)
  was just asking what were like your main forms of like networking and that like what’s been successful for you.

  Shayanne (13:47)
  made for many forms.

  So okay, gotcha. So yeah, so in addition to everything I mentioned, you know, social media has been great. You know, I’ve done some deals from social media, you know, just by posting different flyers of different houses of different open houses that I do or, know, when I post, you know, the interest rates, as far as I can update on the interest rates, you know, I get a lot of comments on that. And honestly, like the platform that’s been really, you know,

  creating a lot of new business is LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been a ⁓ great resource for me. So I tend to spend more time on there, just, you know, making sure my presence professionally is up to par. And then every other social media platform falls, you know, under that. But that’s been a good resource. You know, word of mouth, obviously, you know, the referral business I receive is usually from friends and family.

  And the more friends I make, the more referrals I can get. So kind of just keep the flow of networking continuously, no matter where I am, just to kind of create more referral business. And yeah, and that’s how it works. And also collaborating with other agents. mean, again, having access to exclusive off-market opportunities makes me valuable to them, right? I’m not a threat, I’m not competition, I’m more of an ally.

  because I have access to properties that they don’t and they have access to investors I may not. So therefore, there’s a happy marriage there that can facilitate a transaction.

  Erika (16:00)
  Yeah, that’s interesting that you’re, you know, the way that you’re leveraging social media like LinkedIn now for, you know, and I know each social media has, you know, its own algorithm and, you know, what works for one may not work for the other. So I guess I’m asking more about LinkedIn.

  you know, is it you know, what is working for you on there? Is it you know, sharing open houses? Is it your podcast? Is it a rotation of things? What’s been working for you?

  Shayanne (16:34)
  you know, outreach more than anything because I noticed that the top executives don’t really respond to messages on Instagram or, you know, Facebook or anything like that. But on LinkedIn, they tend to, you know, be pretty responsive, you know, because, you know, and it could be maybe because they just check out your profile and anybody could kind of falsify their profile on another social media platform. But with LinkedIn, you know, it’s pretty, it’s a pretty credible resource, you know, and then

  Like even for example, when I received ⁓ my certificate for private equity from Wharton Business School, the credential Wharton release was attached to my LinkedIn. So you can’t fake that because it came directly from the entity, right? So from the issuing entity. So there’s a lot of credibility that you can gain from having a sophisticated LinkedIn profile that will… ⁓

  ⁓ How can I say motivate someone to respond to your message? You know, as opposed to, know, just a random Joe small with a couple of cool pictures that probably could have generated with AI on his Instagram page. You know what I’m saying? So I think just having that, that from a credibility standpoint, a professional standpoint, ⁓ outreach has been pretty successful for me. But honestly, it also boils down to your message as well. You know, your message.

  It has to be ⁓ concise, but direct and straightforward as possible. Offering, introducing who you are, what you do, who you serve, and what value you’re looking to bring to this individual that you’re outreaching to.

  Erika (18:12)
  Yeah, yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. Well, when you were, you know, talking about Joe Schmo, there, you know, there’s one thing that kind of separates people from the from the rest in real estate. And it’s, you know, it’s the hard stuff. You know, maybe it’s a deal that went sideways. Maybe you had to pivot, you know, really fast for a client. Do you have one of those moments on your journey that you can share with us?

  Shayanne (18:42)
  I mean, ultimately, like the last one I remember, we were in the middle of a deal. So essentially we found the off market property. was a was a fixer, you know, the buyer, you know, I found the buyer. We came to look at the property. He liked the property. He ran his numbers. Everything made sense. And then when it came to submitting the earnest money deposit, you know, he got a little cold feet. So

  That was a little alarming because we only had a certain amount of time to source a buyer before the close of escrow because the property was going to be listed. So once it gets listed on the open market, it kind of loses its desirability from a, know, exclusive art market standpoint. So we were scrambling to find a buyer before, against the clock. So, you know, what I did, I went on LinkedIn and I…

  Erika (19:39)
  Yeah.

  Shayanne (19:39)
  you know, promoted

  the property on there. And then I was tagging all the investors within the network, right? You know, cause a lot of times, you know, you can’t really, well, not a lot of times, you can’t really tag anyone that’s isn’t within, that you haven’t facilitated a connection with. So luckily when I first entered LinkedIn, I was slowly going after anything that said real estate investor on your profile, I would make sure we were friends. So I tagged all of them and then somebody reached out like, Hey, I like this property.

  you know, me some information. So luckily when we had to do diligence with the previous buyer, we had all the numbers in place. So it was easy to kind of send him every, all the data for him to analyze, to then assess if it was a good deal or not, which he determined it was a good deal. And then, you know, he was able to come see the property right away. And that was a little bit scary as well, because sometimes with those type of off market deals,

  they want you to come in non-contingent. They want you to sometimes buy sight unseen, but the seller was pretty flexible with that. So it was a quick inspection. I made sure when he arrived to the inspection that he brought his contractor with him to kind of assess those renovation costs per the data that we have, and it definitely aligns. So yeah, he submitted his earning money, he harnessed money deposit that day.

  I think it was like 25,000 or something like that, like boom. And yeah, we ended up closing. He got the property, everybody got paid and then that was the end of that. Thank God, because I was sweating bullets.

  Erika (21:18)
  Yeah, and once again, LinkedIn came through.

  Shayanne (21:22)
  Shout out to LinkedIn, man. I love LinkedIn. It’s my favorite social media platform.

  Erika (21:28)
  Well, Shayanne, you definitely have a good foundation in real estate and you have a network that is working for you with what you have going on. So that leads me to ask, what’s next on the horizon?

  Shayanne (21:44)
  Honestly, I just want to continue to be of service to my current client base and continue to serve that community and be an authority in that space to where I’m the go-to person for the off-market opportunities because of the investor database that I have and the client base that I have. just being a resource to other agents who are looking for ⁓ opportunities for their buyers.

  well, know, just wanting to be of service to them as well as to other investors that I source who are looking for opportunities. But I do want to expand, you know, I do I have a vast network nationwide as well. And that’s expanding to other countries also, specifically in Dubai. So I’m looking to, you know, source opportunities and, you know, for for investors that are looking to expand as well, you know, beyond the state of the state of California. So, you know, again, just

  Just being a resource for those looking for opportunities, whether in this state or beyond.

  Erika (22:52)
  exciting Shayanne. Before we wrap up if someone wants to reach out connect with you maybe they need to do a deal in Los Angeles what’s the best way for them to reach you?

  Shayanne (23:04)
  Well, all my social media platform is the same. It’s my full name, Shayanne.Andujar. So that’s S-H-A-Y-A-N-N-E period A-N-D-U-J-A-R across all social media platforms. And you can reach out to me there, send me a DM. I’ll send you my phone number and my email. And let’s talk business. Happy to represent you, happy to find the opportunities you’re looking for, happy to help you preserve your capital.

  and help you raise your capital as well. If any developers out there are sourcing capital for their development projects, that’s an opportunity I’m well versed in with these investors who are looking to deploy capital for those multifamily apartment building opportunities. I can help out with that as well. So yeah, don’t hesitate to reach out.

  Erika (23:58)
  Well, Shayanne, I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. We need more people in this space who have the excitement and drive that you have.

  Shayanne (24:04)
  Likewise.

  I appreciate that. Thank you so much for having me and congrats on everything you’re doing as well. And I hope I wish you much success with this podcast. Podcasting is it’s a great tool. It definitely worked out for me. As I mentioned earlier, I have a podcast called our sleep is for billionaires where we interview celebrities and entrepreneurs on how to become an industry professional specifically in entertainment. So that allowed me to create a network right when I came to LA.

  you know, I, again, I came chasing the entertainment endeavor. And at that point I had an album out called Sleep is for Billionaires. So, you know, when I decided how to come here, I was thinking, how can I create a network the fast as possible? So podcasting was just kind of starting out. So was like, let me start a podcast. I got the album title, Sleep is for Billionaires. So let me just call it a Sleep is for Billionaires. And then I just hit the ground running and I started.

  bringing guests on, and these are credible guests. mean, Grammy award winning artists, producers, songwriters, directors, these people. And since I was already in the acting world, it was easy to kind of be in those rooms with those individuals and book them to be guests. So I found that to be a great networking tool to where not only they can get to know me, I can get to know them, we can become friends and then potentially become partners in other endeavors as I continue to offer value.

  So yes, I know I listen you’re doing a great thing with your podcast I hope the podcast is working out for you the same way it’s done for me and you know my success to you

  Erika (25:42)
  Thank you and I hope our listeners come check out your podcast too Shayanne.

  Shayanne (25:47)
  So hey, it’s available everywhere the videos on YouTube the audio versions on Spotify and an Amazon podcast and yeah, we’re on episode 157 157 right now. So they have pretty exciting journey more to come.

  Erika (26:08)
  For our listeners today, 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 pros like Shayanne, who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.