Build Wealth: Vision, Systems (EOS/Traction), and Scaling XSITE Capital to $243M AUM

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Leslie Awasom, founder of XSITE Capital, who shares his journey into multifamily real estate investing. Leslie discusses the importance of community investing, the systems that have contributed to his success, and the challenges he faced in raising capital. He emphasizes the significance of having a clear vision, building authentic relationships, and the role of education in empowering others to invest in real estate. The conversation highlights the transformative power of investing in multifamily assets and the mission of XSITE Capital to provide access to these opportunities for busy professionals.

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
    • Leslie Awasom’s Website
    • Leslie Awasom on LinkedIn
    • Leslie Awasom on Instagram
    • Leslie Awasom on Facebook

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Leslie Awasom (00:00)
  Yeah, you know the first stuff if you’re going for easy if you want an easy life then just stick to whatever it is that you do There’s no there’s no there’s no really it’s like choose your hard, right? I heard one of my mentors said that choose your hard. Is it they’re gonna be hard you waking up in the morning I’m going to jump for the rest of your life. It’s gonna be hard you figuring out how to acquire this asset. So ⁓ Never been never been afraid to for work never been shy to take any challenges. So

  So that has never been an issue. So we’ll go after anything that we want.

  Quentin (02:03)
  Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Now if you know me, you know what I’m about to say. I’m excited to be here. We have another guest who I know you’re just going to absolutely love. man, listen, they believe in giving business professionals access to multifamily deals, believe in community investing. They’re just going to make sure you have what you need to build the assets and the wealth that you want.

  And so I’m excited about the way he served his, his, his community, his, his market. And I’m excited for you to get to know things through his lens to see things from his perspective. And so I want to introduce you to Mr. Leslie. Awasom. Mr. Leslie, how you doing today,

  Leslie Awasom (02:47)
  I’m doing fantastic, how you doing?

  Quentin (02:50)
  man, man, doing good, better that you’re here, better that you’re gonna carry the show, man. I’m gonna ask you questions and you’re gonna be the expert. So I’m good, man. I’m good. But yeah, man, I’m absolutely, and I know you are, man. And like I said, I’m excited about our viewers just getting to see things from your perspective, man. And so, Leslie, to be honest, I’m gonna dive in. I want you to tell people what your main focus is these days.

  Leslie Awasom (02:59)
  Let’s do it. Let’s do it. I’m ready to go.

  Quentin (03:19)
  I would love for you maybe if you want to get into how you got into the real estate space, where the passion comes from. And also tell us what markets you’re operating in as well.

  Leslie Awasom (03:28)
  Sounds great. Yeah, so our focus is in acquiring institutional grade multifamily assets What that essentially means is we buy apartment communities These are communities that are at least a hundred units or more. We primarily focus in the southeastern markets We love the Atlanta market. We buy a lot of deals in Atlanta. So and We we do this The reason for us doing this is to serve a community a demographic that we saw

  needed this and did not have access to this. You know, I’m part of that demographic myself. I’m a busy professional, nine to five professional, or at least I used to be. I used to work as a nurse and a status in the hospital, healthcare provider, did that for over 10 years. And while working at the hospital, you know, you’re given all these different investment options. You could invest in stocks, you can invest in this 401k and all of this. But when we came across ⁓ the ability to own apartment complexes,

  We realize that a lot of members in our community do not even know that this asset class is available to them. But guess what? The private equity firms, the Blackstones of the world, the Starwoods of the world, they own these apartment complexes. And how do they own it? They own it by pulling resources from investors like yourself together and they go buy it and then make great returns and pass down little returns to you as the investor. So we saw that as an opportunity to break that middle ground, create a platform.

  Where are busy hardworking professionals like ourselves can have direct access?

  Direct access to ownership of this apartment complexes and they’re able to create cash flow They’re able to create appreciation and they’re able to get tremendous tax benefits from investing these assets So that’s the platform on which does the premise on which Xsite capital was founded back in 2019 and we are so grateful and Really really grateful and excited because since then

  We’ve acquired over 243 million of apartment communities across the US with our group of investors.

  Quentin (06:18)
  And I want to make sure I heard the name right. Xsite Capital. Did I hear that correct? Xsite. I got you. I apologize. Xsite Capital. Man, ⁓ Mr. Leslie, I absolutely love it. I love it. I love the opportunities that you’re creating, how you’re empowering people, how you’re looking at people that was just like you, doing the nine to five. That’s actually the backbone of our society. But you like, listen, you’ve been the backbone, you’ve served well.

  Leslie Awasom (06:22)
  Xsite, Xsite Capital.

  Quentin (06:48)
  How can we create a better opportunity for you to get your hands on true wealth? And I love how you said, you didn’t say it to the audience, but you said it to me, that the wealth is with the mindset. And so I absolutely love that, man. And I’m gonna pick your mindset a little bit here because you made it sound easy. mean, I think I heard 240 million in assets now, right? I think I heard that correct. So you made it sound easy. 243, got you. Thank you, sir. 243.

  Leslie Awasom (06:59)
  Absolutely.

  Yeah, it’s 243, yes.

  Quentin (07:18)
  But I know it’s not, you make it, it sounds easy, but I know it hasn’t always been easy. And so, cause it’s not always easy in this climate. So what’s been the key or what’s been the systems that you’ve put in place that keeps this thing running smoothly? Like what’s some of the secrets in your sauce, sir?

  Leslie Awasom (07:34)
  Yeah, you know the first stuff if you’re going for easy if you want an easy life then just stick to whatever it is that you do There’s no there’s no there’s no really it’s like choose your hard, right? I heard one of my mentors said that choose your hard. Is it they’re gonna be hard you waking up in the morning I’m going to jump for the rest of your life. It’s gonna be hard you figuring out how to acquire this asset. So ⁓ Never been never been afraid to for work never been shy to take any challenges. So

  So that has never been an issue. So we’ll go after anything that we want.

  So I’m sorry I missed a part of the question. I got stuck on the easy

  Quentin (08:08)
  Yeah.

  When I said that, that’s one of my mottoes too about choose your hard. I said that all the time, choose your hard. But I guess, so one of the questions was, and I don’t want you to give all of your secrets, but what’s been some of the systems that you’ve put in place that kind of keep this machine running the way that it does?

  Leslie Awasom (08:12)
  Yeah

  Good point. So ⁓ we’ve learned along the way, right? We figured out a lot of stuff along the way. Again, the biggest part of the system is first of all, starting with a vision. You gotta have a clear vision of where you wanna go, right? And that vision has to be big enough that it excites you to be able to go through those hard times, to be able to push through those hard times. And that vision has to be bigger than you, right? If we were just acquiring these assets from our partners and myself, we probably would have given up a long time ago.

  Our vision was bigger than us. was bigger than Dr. Julius Oniteni and myself acquiring apartment buildings. It was about us bringing access to a community that did not have access to this asset class and be able to do that in a way that has never been done before. So that is a bigger vision. That’s the beginning part of the system because it’s that vision that pulls you forward. Then as you go along the way, you have to have the right structures in place, have to have the build the right systems, right teams, right organizational structures.

  one one System that really helped us one of our mentors. I remember this very well We were we have started the business. We were just running, know excited by this vision, you know doing things doing this This needs to get done. This is this this good. This is good One day one of our mentors was like man. You guys are running around like chickens. It’s a haircut off Take this book or read this book. All right, the name of the book is traction by Gino weak man

  And where he teaches the entrepreneurial operating system,

  I remember it was, ⁓ we spoke to our mentor in December. We got the book, read it, all three of us. January, ⁓ the next year, we went, all of us met in North Carolina, locked ourselves in a cheap hotel in a conference room, and we locked in there. We implemented traction in our business. And six, and three months later, sorry, we acquired our first large apartment community. Because at that time,

  The vision now had met an operating system that we could follow that focuses directly on our goals and we implement that step by step as we go along the way. So systems is key. I’m glad that you brought that up. Having the right systems is gonna help you move towards that vision much faster.

  Quentin (11:15)
  So yeah, one of my mentors said to me, when you know who you are, you know what to do. And I’ve been living in that, like, when you know your why, when you know who you are, when you know what drives you, you could put a person in any situation. When they know who they are, they know what to do. They know what’s going to power me forward. And so when I listen to you, when you look at the bigger why, it’s just not about me. Like I’m a bridge builder. I’m a connector. And everybody’s connecting to me.

  And that way that keeps me moving forward. And whenever, whatever situation I’m in, I know what to do. That’s why attraction sounds so inviting to you as a book. Cause one, it was from your mentor. And two, you wanted to gain traction in what you were doing. So it’s, I’m just saying like, it just sounds to me, you know who you are and that powers you forward. That’s what I’m trying to say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I appreciate it. And so I love you. I love your mindset. And so I always tell people.

  Leslie Awasom (12:02)
  Absolutely, you the nail on the head

  Quentin (12:13)
  We just don’t want to show people the success. We want to show people the journey of how they got to the success. And so you’ve been in it long enough. think 2019 is what I wrote down. I believe that’s what I heard you say. That’s what things really got going. So I know you always said, you choose your hard. So there are times when things get real, when deals go sideways, times when you have to pivot fast. And I was wondering maybe if you could share a story like that again to show the viewers.

  Leslie Awasom (12:25)
  Yes.

  Quentin (12:40)
  that there was a journey and a pathway to success. And it always doesn’t come just when everything is just hunky-dory, if you know what I mean.

  Leslie Awasom (12:48)
  Absolutely. There’s so many stories. I’m kind of confused on which one to tell you but yeah, it’s just part of the journey, right? So I’m going to share the very first story because people might hear my story and they’re inspired to go do it and I think sharing some of those challenges in the early part of the journey might be helpful. So when we started to acquire these assets, you have to raise capital. You have to raise capital from investors. Obviously, we don’t have the millions of dollars ourselves to go do it. So you have to

  Quentin (12:51)
  You

  Leslie Awasom (13:18)
  Identify a group of investors and raise capital from and then you manage the assets and you provide your investors the returns So when we started, I we were so excited get out there start pushing but we were so afraid To talk about this vision to the community that we initially set up this platform to to serve Right. We were so afraid to talk about it to our colleagues to our friends and other people So we thought the greatest idea was to go to a real estate community and go find people that are already investors and talk to them

  So that’s what we did and went to a bunch of real estate conferences, got a few investors. We had an opportunity, reached out to one of those investors and all we had to raise was half a million dollars. yeah, the ladies were like, yes, we got you guys. We love the deal. We presented the deal, send them the underwriting, everything. They were so excited. like, we got you. You don’t need to raise any more capital or bring the half a million dollars to the deal. So my partner and I, we started celebrating.

  We actually went and bought a drink, sat at my house and we were having a nice drink and celebrating. And it’s funny enough because while we were there celebrating, one of my friends came over. She’s a doctor and she was asking, why are you guys celebrating? I said, ah, no, I don’t worry about it. We’re doing big things, you know, we’re the guys and all of this, you know. And guess what? A few weeks later, we’re calling the investors that self committed crickets. Crickets, no response. No response. Calling, calling, no response.

  Quentin (14:33)
  I’m like…

  Leslie Awasom (14:48)
  So that deal fell apart, right? So we were not able to get on that deal. We ended up being unable to raise a single dollar for that deal, right? Now,

  a lot of people you face that challenge, they’ll be like, man, this is not for me. I cannot raise capital. This deal is not for me. This business is not for me. I’m just gonna go buy my single family. I’m just gonna go do wholesaling and all of this other stuff, right? But this is what we did. We sat back and asked ourselves, what is it that we were not doing that we could do better?

  We reached out to other people that have been successful that are mentors and sat down with them and say, Hey, what are we doing wrong? And they told us exactly what we’re doing wrong, which is like, we’re not talking to the right people. We’re not providing this opportunity to the right people who really need it. Right. We letting our fears guide our direction instead of allowing our vision to guide our direction. That’s one very powerful thing. Because when you set that vision, you gotta let it guide your direction, not your fears.

  Quentin (16:15)
  Mmm.

  Leslie Awasom (16:27)
  The vision is gonna be so big that a lot of fears will come from all over the place and try to stop you. And fears might come and distract you or move you away from that path. So you gotta let your vision guide your direction. And that’s exactly what we started doing and things just took off from there. So while that was a challenge and many people call it a failure, it helped us out a lot. We learned a lot of lessons. But since then we’ve had so many other challenges. It is part of the game. It is part of the journey.

  Quentin (16:39)
  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Leslie Awasom (16:55)
  Doesn’t matter what path you choose, you’re going to have challenges. So better go for something big and deal with those challenges.

  Quentin (16:59)
  Yeah, yeah,

  yeah. Man, I can’t help but when I hear you talk, proverbs kind of jumped off the screen to me. It’s like the way you think, it reminds me of Justine’s languages that’s hidden in proverbs, ⁓ like old ancient proverbs. And there’s a proverb that says, the vision is for an appointed time.

  And when they hear the vision, they will pick up the vision and they will run with it. I’m kind of paraphrasing. I’m not saying the line by line, but when you listen to your mentor and went to the people that actually needed the vision, they grabbed a hold to the vision and they ran with it. so like the vision was for an appointed time, right? And so that’s what, when you said that, that’s what I thought about. That’s what I thought about. Yeah. Yeah.

  Leslie Awasom (17:41)
  Absolutely.

  You hit the nail on the head. Absolutely. that completely

  transformed the platform, right? That’s what made us who we are today, you know, so.

  Quentin (17:52)
  Yup. Yup.

  Yeah. Now I love it, man. I love what you guys are doing. Xsite Capital. I got it right that time, right?

  Leslie Awasom (18:03)
  Xsite capital that’s X X So no, it’s all good. So it’s X as in xylophone s as in Sam it Xsite capital

  Quentin (18:04)
  Xsite. What am I doing? Xsite. Xsite. OK.

  Okay.

  Okay.

  Got you, man. ⁓ got you. I got it. I got it. Man, I’m just, I guess because excited is my word because I really don’t, I’m excited about what y’all are doing. Like it’s really, you know, it’s something about people in businesses that serve people. When they serve people, you know, that’s something I think it’s just one of the greatest ways to a sustainable business is when you actually serve.

  Serving people not serving yourself but serving people and connecting with people and that’s what I’m here what you’re doing and it excites me and so ⁓ Let me ask you this Leslie. What are you most full-storn sovereign or scaling next? I was the next real goal for Xsite capital

  Leslie Awasom (19:02)
  So we have acquired 243 million of assets. our goal is to get to a billion of assets in like the next two years. And to get there, we require people. So the biggest focus on that I’m focused because we kind of transitioning from that phase of like the founder doing everything every day to actually bring in qualified people that are taking the rems and doing all of that. And we are so blessed, you know.

  I’m so grateful. We have an amazing team right now. So we’re growing that team and bringing in more people to fill in those gaps. So that’s what I’m focusing on right now. As a leader is to make myself better, to improve myself, to constantly get better as a leader, to constantly get better as that person that is able to create other leaders within the organization that could lead us into this vision. Because for us to get there, we’ll have to serve a lot of people, right? We’ll have to serve a lot of, we’ll have to present value to a lot of people.

  So we need the right people in the right seats to help us accomplish that mission.

  Quentin (20:03)
  Yeah, yeah. You know, it sounds to me what’s happening is that you’re making sure your foundation is certain. That way, the heavier y’all grow and the heavier the weight comes on the foundation, the foundation ain’t gonna crumble. And it’s like, you know, it seems like you are scaling and building at the right pace to me. Yeah.

  Leslie Awasom (20:12)
  Absolutely.

  Yeah, it’s-

  Absolutely, you know, I love to look at nature, to think about life from nature perspective. And when it comes to growth, you can look at example of a plant or a tree, there are two sides to growth, right? There’s the growth underneath and there’s the growth that goes on top, right? So if you’re looking, if you’re going after like a strong, big enough goal, that growth, the roots at the bottom needs to be solid to hold that tree that will grow so high up in the sky that it could hold it down. You know, so.

  Quentin (20:28)
  Hmm

  Leslie Awasom (20:53)
  If you start growing and you’re just focusing on what’s on the surface, any wind that blows is going to break that plant down. So that’s the foundation that we’re focusing on, making sure that we have our roots planted very well deep within the soil, build those foundations, those systems, those people in place that could sustain that level of growth. So that’s where the focus is at.

  Quentin (21:15)
  Beautiful analogy. Beautiful, sir. And so this is a good transition point because you’re talking about building a team, making sure the right people are in place. I’m listening to you. You talked about three of y’all locked yourself in a room. You’ve talked about your mentor. So talk about the people that you serve and bringing people in to the vision. So it sounds like to me, you’re very good at valuing relationships. And so I just want to talk about relationships for a little bit and building relationships.

  And so when it comes to building those relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

  Leslie Awasom (21:48)
  Oh man, relationships are everything. For me, what has made the biggest difference to me is just being authentic, like being your true self, not trying to be anybody that you’re not. This is like a really good, powerful question, right? Because I’m a nurse and a status or a CRNA, right? And for very long time, I shied away from my CRNA community to talk to them about investing and all of that because

  I was so locked into that identity of a CRNA and concerned about how my CRNA community is gonna view me when I come in as an investor and all of that. So I shied away from that, but I was more comfortable with talking maybe to doctors and having them, giving them the opportunities to invest, know, but it was one of my, I call him to, I have a lot of mentors and a lot of friends in life. One of my mentors in the CRNA community that was like, Leslie, why are you not telling me about this? Like, this is you a good guy.

  I just put $500,000 to somebody else. I’d rather invest that money with you because I know you. You’re true self, you’re a good guy. Our community needs to get this more. And so that authenticity, right? That is the power of building relationships. I cannot tell you how many people are willing to step up and say, know what? We got you, we’re pushing for you because as a person, the authenticity doesn’t start when you start a business.

  It is you got to be who you are at every stage whether you’re doing business or not and that’s what is going to lead you forward That’s what is going to help you build true relationships So i’m grateful for that because that has also helped me now build really good relationships in my crna community Like some of our biggest investors at crnas. They are true advocates for what we do They’re out there referring and talking to other people about what we’re doing. It’s just like Sometimes I get emotional about it. It really warms my hard

  Quentin (23:42)
  Yeah.

  Leslie Awasom (23:43)
  You know, and the fact that I’m able to come back as a nurse and an esthetist, now I don’t practice anymore. Now I’m coming back and I’m able to serve that community and give that value to them. I know how my colleagues work really hard to get to their careers. I know, I know how we struggle through school and all of that. So I know, so being able to provide value to that community is just something that’s powerful. So, so relationship building, just be authentic self. I think sometimes we…

  We try to mystify everything, a lot of things, a lot of different things. We try to make it, you read a lot of books and try to make it, all these techniques and all of that. No, just be authentic. That programming, that human programming that we generated from our ancestors where we’re able to just pick on somebody that’s authentic. It hasn’t gone away. So that authenticity is key.

  Quentin (24:26)
  you

  Yeah. Man, man, listen, that’s a mic drop moment, sir. Like you, you just said just so much. you know, and I want to add to what you said, and it’s just a little bit of what I want to add. Not only is the authenticity to building ⁓ business, a sustainable business. And I, and to me, that’s why when I look at what you’re doing, it’s already having success, but it’s going to be sustained success.

  And so you guys are going to get to that one big billion in assets because you know how to build off authenticity and it’s going to continue to be sustainable. think every level you go to, the foundation is going to be sure. And then we build that foundation is sure. Then we build, like you said, with the tree, the roots are down deep and we’re going to be good. And so, man, I’m so excited about what you’re doing. I cannot thank you enough for just coming through and just really just adding so much value.

  Leslie Awasom (25:03)
  Absolutely.

  Quentin (25:32)
  to this platform. So, Mr. Leslie, listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,

  Leslie Awasom (25:43)
  So I am active on social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. And my name is Leslie Awasom, L-E-S-L-I-E-A-W-A-S-O-M. Those are my names in every social media platform. ⁓ Reach out to me on Instagram. Reach out to me on Facebook. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. Send me a DM. We have a very robust community. Like the conversations we had prior to starting this podcast, I mentioned to you that for us, we believe that true generational world

  It’s not just about passing assets from one generation to another but the true generation of all this passing knowledge from one generation to another and that’s something that we’re really passionate about because we came into this knowledge. So we do a lot of free education. We teach a lot of people. We have different communities that we got and teach different people. yeah, he doesn’t join me hit me up on Facebook. Come join one of our presentations. We do workshops and all of that. So learn use the knowledge pass it down to your family members.

  Invest in these assets because it’s available to you.

  Quentin (26:43)
  Absolutely. Well, listen, allow me to put some respect on your name because I messed your name up at the top. So let me circle back around. Mr. Awasom. How did I do? Awasom?

  Leslie Awasom (26:52)
  You

  did amazing. You said awesome before and I’m not going to take that away. I appreciate you.

  Quentin (26:55)
  You know, man, this, cause you are awesome. You are awesome. But I want to put some respect on your name, Mr. Awasom. Thank you so much,

  man. No, absolutely, man. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you for coming through with your story, with your time, with your perspective. You have been really, really just an added gift to this platform. And I know our viewers is just going to love this episode. So again, sir, thank you so much for being here today. I appreciate you, man.

  Leslie Awasom (27:22)
  Thank you so much for having me, I truly appreciate you.

  Quentin (27:26)
  Absolutely. So listen, y’all got the value. Y’all heard Mr. Leslie. We need you just to go ahead and subscribe. I say it all the time. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations. I mean, come on. Listen, now I’m being intentional. The guy was awesome, Mr. Leslie was awesome. And so we just want to make sure that you can continue to come in and get this content from these amazing people.

  Mr. Leslie, sir, I thank you so much again and listening to everyone else. We will see you on the next