Becoming the Bank: Real Estate Lending Strategies

Alvin Lee (00:00)
I’m talking about, usually it’s the people who have failed to start or are still in the analysis paralysis piece of things. don’t get caught up in analyzing or, you know, finding the absolute perfect deal. There is no perfect deal, right? Get out there and get started, build that experience and that ball will roll.

Quentin (00:03)
Hmm.

Alvin Lee (00:19)
You know, I didn’t grow to 40 plus stores in one year, right? It takes time. You buy that first one, like, you know, Brandon Turner and a lot of people say you buy the first one, then the next year you buy two more, the next year you buy some more. And then next thing you know, you’re buying a thousand complex, you know, a thousand unit apartment complexes at once. I haven’t even gotten there yet. Right. But don’t be afraid to reach out to those that are where you want to be.

Quentin (02:15)
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited. Y’all know I say that all the time, and I mean it when I say it. I’m really excited. Everything that be allowed is exciting to me, right? But I’m very, very excited about our guest that’s here today. You know, we bring people in who just give things from their unique lens, from their perspective. And even sometimes you may have heard people in the same field, but it’s always a unique perspective.

because everybody deals with everything differently. Some people got different initiatives, some people got different processes. And so I’m just excited. I’m excited. I’m excited to hear the process from this gentleman today. I know you’re going to find what he’s saying very, very valuable. So please help me introduce today, Mr. Alvin Lee. How you doing today,

Alvin Lee (03:05)
and how are you Quentin? So my pleasure to be here today.

Quentin (03:06)
I’m doing good,

No, man, I’m so excited to have you here, man. I’m excited for you to talk to our audience about what it is that you do. so, if you don’t mind, man, I like to dive in. like just to give as much time to the guests that’s on for you to educate us, for you to inform us, for you maybe to excite us, maybe even course correct us, right? Because some people may be listening and maybe you wanna…

on a course that they don’t want to be on and just hearing something from you can kind of slightly course correct. And so, man, I just know our listeners are going to learn a lot from you. So if you don’t mind, man, you know, there are people out here that are not familiar with your world and what you do. I would love for you to give us what is your main focus these days and what markets you are operating in. I would love for you to tell us that,

Alvin Lee (04:00)
Thank you. So my name is Alvin Lee. I’m a real estate investor first. I’ve been investing in real estate for about six years, acquired as many as 44 doors, including mobile home parks, small multifamily properties, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, light fix and flips. You name it, I’ve kind of done it. Perfect burrs. But in the course of doing all of that, I find that

You know what most people and myself are chasing for in real estate is true passive income, right? But as we all know real estate while is great the income portion of real estate or the cashflow portion is not always consistent and can take a considerable amount of time and have other costs are involved. So what I found is that being a private money lender and using other people’s money to do deals is

the key, right? We can join both real estate and becoming the bank itself. I mean, what does every bank in the world do is lend money on real estate and what is involved in every single real estate deal money, right? So if we become the bank, we get to profit on any type of strategy, whether it be mobile home parks, RV parks, apartment complexes, single family co-living, you name it, we can be part of it and still make money off of it 100 % passively. And

The second part of making money is not about the money, right? It’s about the freedom that it buys us. So becoming a lender, you put out your money, you set up your systems correctly, and you protect yourself. And everything after that is pretty passive. Like you don’t really have to do anything if you’ve underwritten correctly, right? So what I do is help people get into these types of loans, 100 % passively and into great loans with great borrowers.

protected by all the right things and help them regain their time and their freedom. You know, the most important thing is not the money. It’s the freedom that it affords us, right? So I’m doing that in terms of markets to answer your question that I’m in. I’m in both Arizona, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, New York. Those are just some of the places that I’ve owned or ⁓ currently own. I’ve also owned as far in Washington ⁓ State, just outside of Seattle.

So I’ve done a number of things.

Quentin (07:04)
it, man. I love it. love it. One of the things about you, man, you’re able to offer from the traditional side and the creative side, right? And I absolutely love that, man. I love how you’re trying to help people, maybe even with no money down, right? You can get creative with the way you do stuff because of your approach. And that’s a beautiful thing, man. And so, of course, you know, it’s not always easy in this climate, right? So I guess my question would be, what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Alvin Lee (07:12)
Right.

It’s constantly building new relationships with new borrowers, new lenders, new brokers or banks that are willing to help with the creative side of things. And now that you mentioned it, I actually left out a lot of what I do. So thank you for bringing that up. Besides just the long-term private money lending piece, I do a lot of transactional lending. So that’s EMD lending, double closes, seller carryback financing.

And then also I can join in all in one, all in house is traditional financing as well. So your traditional loans, your DSCR, fix and flip bridge loans, new construction, you name it, I can do it. And being all in house with the transactional lending side of things, I can join the two creatively to ensure that most people, depending on the deal, you can get into deals, no money down or even money in your pocket. Now.

The power of that is just, it blows your mind when you can get into a deal and actually get paid money. Like it’s something that you hear only in from the gurus, but trust me, it can happen as long as you have the right deal.

Quentin (08:35)
I love it. Listen, I’m glad we circle back around, man, because that even brought in the scope of what it is that you bring to the table, man. And I love it, man. I love to hear everything that you’re involved in. And so, you know, of course, you know, there’s moments when things get real, right? When maybe a deal goes sideways or a time when you had to pivot fast and every operator go through it, right?

So Mr. Alvin, do you mind telling us maybe one of those moments where you kinda had to pivot fast when it came to Adele?

Alvin Lee (09:06)
Hmm. mean, that’s like every deal. Every deal is not so straightforward, right? I mean, I have a deal that I’m tomorrow, helping a borrower with a Morbid method, the seller financing carry back method. Been going on with this loan back and forth with the lenders, with the borrowers for over a month ⁓ or actually month and a half probably because, you know, the

Quentin (09:09)
Yeah.

Alvin Lee (09:29)
The underwriting team is like the bane of a lender’s existence sometimes, or even a borrower’s, right? You give them everything that they wanted and then a day of closing, they’re like, wait, we found this and we need this now and we’re going to have to go back to underwriting. And I’m like, okay, three weeks later, here we are again. You know, so it’s just about shifting with the times and rolling with the punches and making sure we satisfy everything that we need to in order to get to the closing table, right?

Quentin (09:35)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank

Alvin Lee (09:57)
⁓ We want our efforts to have, you know, pay dividends to us and the only way to do that is to get to the closing cable.

Quentin (10:04)
Absolutely. No, man, I appreciate that. Thank you for your perspective. For me, just listening to you, listening to all the things that you have in place, it definitely lets me know you’re somebody that’s just not dabbling, right? You’re somebody that’s in it for the long term. And so I absolutely love it. I absolutely love your approach. And I guess, you know, it would lead me to ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like, what is the next real goal?

Alvin Lee (11:07)
I want to help a hundred people reach financial freedom, right? So that’s, whether that’s through your real estate and, I’ve helped a number of people get into, you know, five plus properties already in the last month, right? it’s all it takes is one or two deals. doesn’t take that long depending. mean, if you’re, you know, somebody of high income, it will take a little longer, but to help.

Quentin (11:11)
I’m home.

Alvin Lee (11:30)
Bring somebody closer to financial freedom doesn’t really take that much. A few good deals can set you off on the right path and down the right road towards getting towards financial freedom, both for myself and for other people. So any way that I can assist with that, that’s the main goal of things is to help people buy back their time.

Quentin (11:48)
Yeah, I love it, man. You’ve said it multiple times and it really resonates with me, helping people buy back their time. Right? mean, that time is out, one of our most precious resources. And that’s really what we kind of pay services for, right? To get our time back. Anytime we get our time back, can help us be hyper focused on being productive and being efficient. And so I love that. And I love the fact he said a hundred people, listen, I want to help a hundred people reach financial freedom.

I mean, that’s big, man. That’s big, especially when you already got so much in place. That’s huge, man. And I know you know this quite better than anyone. The next move can either compound things or it can create total chaos, depending on how you play it, right? And so, man, I just, I love it. I love that you are really trying to have what I call is a service heart. That’s what I call it. It’s really trying to service people. And when you find out you’re servicing people, it just makes everything worthwhile.

Alvin Lee (12:34)
Mm-hmm.

Quentin (12:47)
You know?

Alvin Lee (12:48)
Money is a byproduct. It’s not the main focus, right? So like you said, time is one of our most valuable assets. I would argue that it is our most valuable asset, right? Time and obviously health paired with that. But if you have time on earth, then I would assume that you have the health to go with it in a sense, right? But time is the only thing that is uncertain for in life.

Quentin (13:00)
See ya.

Alvin Lee (13:11)
I mean, like they say, death and taxation are your own two things. Maybe you can get away with tax if you do it right, but you’ll never outrun the other one. And so the more time that we can buy back, the more time that we can have with our families, the more time we can do things when we want, where we want and how we want, that is true freedom. It’s not how many zeros I have in my bank account. It’s not how many people we know. It’s about how much time we can actually use and enjoy in life.

Quentin (13:16)
Yeah,

I couldn’t agree with you more, man. I couldn’t agree with you more, man. I totally agree. Man, you just said it so eloquently. I’m like, shut up. Can I even expound more on that? But I can’t. You just said it so eloquently, And so to me, it sounds like you’re really all about people and making connections and relationships, right? So I know a lot of people, they’re listening. They’re either early in their journey, they’re looking to level up. And I think they have benefit hearing this from you.

Alvin Lee (13:49)
Hahaha

Absolutely.

Quentin (14:09)
When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Alvin Lee (14:15)
have been real conversations, right? I don’t go into any conversation trying to pitch anything or do anything specific. I listen to people and see where they’re at, see what their problems are, and see how I can help them, right? And a lot of times I may not be the solution for them. I’ve turned away many borrowers saying, hey, I’m not the right one for you. But because if they had a better solution, a better way into their deal, and that doesn’t require my assistance, great, power to them.

⁓ but a lot of times it’s, it’s exactly finding what they need and helping them get there. A lot of people, you know, they are not familiar with the creative side of things and how to do that. So I’ve actually helped bring people to that and get them into those deals in ways that they never thought were possible. Right. Not everybody is as familiar with creative finance or, the ways that you can get into deals. So it’s, it’s amazing when, you know, those light bulbs are popping off in people’s heads and

Like, what? I didn’t even know that was possible, you know? So, yeah, it’s those moments that I think set conversations apart is when you’re able to offer value, right?

Quentin (15:21)
Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. And I love that. I’m glad, you know, that I think that’s why it’s important to connect with people like you. And that’s why, you know, everyone is listening and you probably heard it heard it say before, relationships are everything, connecting with the right people or everything, fostering those genuine connections is everything, you know, and I know, you know, we, you know, we go into deals, you know, you know, things have a price tag.

Like, you know, we’re all trying to, in a sense, make a living. But even in that, it’s always good to just take your time and really, really connect, right? To really, really find out what people’s interests are, where they are in their life, what’s going on with the family, you know, what’s going on just in your world, right? And so I want to take time now to ask you, and this may be kind of off the… As matter of fact, this is kind of unscripted.

Alvin Lee (16:43)
Mm-hmm.

Quentin (17:00)
question, if I’m being honest. But I love your perspective. I love the way that you have a servant’s heart. I absolutely love the way you want to help 100 people gain closer, get closer to their financial freedom. So our listeners, audience that’s listening, is there any kind of motivation that you want to give them? Maybe inspiration, maybe, you know, pulling from your years of experience. Like we have a lot of people that’s listening and I don’t know where they are in their journey, but I think it’s relative.

to hear from somebody like you who’ve overcame some things, who know what it’s like to pivot fast. Like what’s some encouragement that you can give people that’s listening, if you don’t mind. Hopefully that’s not putting you too much on the spot, but I really believe it would be good hearing it from you,

Alvin Lee (17:39)
No.

Yeah. So I think, the, for most people, the problem, and I’m not talking about experience real estate investors here.

I’m talking about, usually it’s the people who have failed to start or are still in the analysis paralysis piece of things. don’t get caught up in analyzing or, you know, finding the absolute perfect deal. There is no perfect deal, right? Get out there and get started, build that experience and that ball will roll.

Quentin (17:53)
Hmm.

Alvin Lee (18:08)
You know, I didn’t grow to 40 plus stores in one year, right? It takes time. You buy that first one, like, you know, Brandon Turner and a lot of people say you buy the first one, then the next year you buy two more, the next year you buy some more. And then next thing you know, you’re buying a thousand complex, you know, a thousand unit apartment complexes at once. I haven’t even gotten there yet. Right. But don’t be afraid to reach out to those that are where you want to be.

Right. We always talk about your network is your net worth and the

the five closest people to you, the five closest people that you’re hanging out with, you’re going to be the sum of their networks, right? So get around people who are doing what you want to do or where you want to be or are closer to where you want to be and learn from them. You know, get out of your comfort zone and go and build that door. ⁓ I made a post on Instagram just yesterday. Funny enough, ⁓ I was at a conference with close to 500, you know, entrepreneurs, business people.

⁓ people out there really getting it like out there to build their and scale their companies. And, ⁓ I have the opportunity to speak on stage, because, know, they had invited me up that opportunity arose, but if I didn’t raise my hand, if I didn’t say, Hey, me, I’m coming up. That opportunity would not have came to fruition. Right. It’s about going out there and reaching and grabbing for it when that opportunity arises or creating it if it’s not right. So.

That going to the conference was me creating an opportunity me raising my hand was an opportunity me getting on stage was being courageous enough to go do that so I Encourage people to take that first step to go and buy their first deal It doesn’t matter if it’s not the perfect deal you will learn and when you learn you will grow so get out there and get it

Quentin (19:53)
I love it, man. I love it, man. Are you talking about the opportunity when the sharks was in the room? Is that that same opportunity? Yeah, man.

Alvin Lee (19:58)
Yes, yeah,

it was the same stage as Kevin Harrington and Robert Hadjarevic. Even Floyd Mayweather was on that same stage. you know.

Quentin (20:02)
for more.

Bye. Yeah.

Nah, man, I appreciate that. Great words, man. And you are talking to someone who has suffered years from analysis by paralysis. mean years just analyzing it, never making a move. Analyzing, never making a strategy. Yeah, you know? Yeah. ⁓

Alvin Lee (20:23)
That that’s me too. That’s we, think we all go through that stage when we started.

mean, you know, I started years ago, but there was years before that, that, you know, I didn’t have enough money or you go through all the doubts. I don’t have enough money. I don’t know how I don’t, I don’t know this or, know, I’m not worried about that. Stop the worrying and just get out there and do it, you know, take that first step, buy a deal or find somebody who can help guide your way. And, you know,

People, you know, I, and I hate, and I’m not selling anything, right? this is, know, go buy, go find a mentor, go do whatever. I used to be of the mindset that, I’m done. I don’t want to pay for it. I just going to learn it. Everything’s on YouTube, you know, but find a mentor or find some, friend, somebody who is where you want to be and go learn from them. The amount of time that you will save in life is just crazy by from somebody sharing you their years of knowledge. Say, you know, if I was able to.

learn from Grant Cardone or whatever and be my mentor right next to me, the amount of exponential growth that will happen even in a day or two days would be ridiculous. never be afraid to pay for advancing. And again, I’m not selling anything. I don’t sell any mentorship. So this is not me, but I have, I have so much from good mentors or people that are out there killing it. And you have to get around those people to grow.

Quentin (21:38)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Lee (21:48)
I would not be where I am doing what I am today without the people that I’ve run into.

Quentin (21:53)
Absolutely. And man, it goes also to what you said about getting your time back. Like when you have mentor coaches who have years of experience, you are buying that experience so you don’t have to waste 10, 15 years just to gain experience from, you know, to where they are. you’re kind of in a sense getting that time back, right? And so it’s all an investment in you. There you go. I love that. Getting catapulted. couldn’t, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Lee (22:15)
You’re getting catapulted, yeah.

slingshotted.

Quentin (22:21)
Then

you can listen, then you go slink for real. Absolutely. So those that’s listening, you’re not by yourself if you suffer from analysis, paralysis, this and we’ve been there, but take from the experience here, go find somebody that’s gonna mentor you, somebody you can trust to save space, who’s gonna counterpunch you to the next level. You know what I mean? And you may have to pay some money for it. YouTube university can’t teach you everything.

Alvin Lee (22:25)
Yeah.

No, I cannot.

Quentin (22:51)
It’s

not showing you everything, you know? It’s showing you what they want to show you. It’s not going to give you all the breadth of experience and knowledge and nuances that you really need. You know what I’m saying? So, yeah. No, not to you, too. We love you because we post on you, so we love you.

Alvin Lee (23:01)
Absolutely right. Yeah, I love YouTube too.

I learned a lot from YouTube. But, but you know, there’s too much of everything, you know, people get into, what is it? Shining object syndrome, right? this person selling boutique hotels, this one selling self storage, this one selling this, selling that, just pick a lane and master it.

Quentin (23:15)
Yes, sir.

Absolutely, absolutely man. Man, I couldn’t said it any better. Well, listen, man, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Alvin Lee (23:34)
Find me on Instagram at it’s Alvin Lee ITS and then my name Alvin Lee You can find my contact information there reach out there. I answer all my DMs myself I don’t have a social media manager. I’m not one of those guys yet. ⁓ I don’t want to say yet because I don’t really want to become one those guys, but But ⁓ yeah reach out I’m happy to chat with anybody and I want to hear your journey and help you in any way that I can

Quentin (23:47)
Absolutely. Well, there he is everyone, Mr. Alvin Lee. Listen, I appreciate your time, sir. I appreciate your perspective. Appreciate your story, man. We definitely need more people in this space that’s doing it the right way like you. So again, thank you, sir, for being here.

Alvin Lee (24:12)
Thank you so much,

Quentin (24:13)
Absolutely. And for those tuning in, y’all know

I like to slow this part down so you can hear my words. If you got value from this, make sure you are subscribed. I’m telling you, you not want to miss out on the amazing conversations that we have. And Mr. Alvin Lee, he’s another one that just came through and just gave us some really, really, really good information. So again, sir, thank you for building your business the right way, building a real sustainable business. appreciate you being here again.

Alvin Lee (24:45)
Appreciate you.

Quentin (24:46)
Absolutely. For those that are tuning in, we’ll see you on it next time. Y’all have a great one.