Distressed Apartment Deals Are Coming: How Investors Can Prepare for the Opportunity

Chutima Barrios (00:00)
I am looking forward to raising more capital from investors, those who look forward to predictable cash flow, enjoying the tax benefit, tax efficient investments, and grow their wealth, protecting that capital through the real estate investing. And as I mentioned earlier, I believe this is the right time to go in. And again, we have to be careful, still continue doing due diligence, understand the market, the location.

The property itself before we make decisions. But generally, like overall with the cycle, this is a good time to get in. I look forward to getting into distress properties.

Q Edmonds (02:14)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the *Real Estate Pros* podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited today. I’m excited about my host. she’s in Philadelphia, but she does investing everywhere.

She’s focused on investing. Listen, she has an MBA, has over 200, 200, or close to 200 doors. she the name of the company is Rent Roll Capital. And I’m excited. I’m excited to learn from her, to learn about our business, but for us to learn from her experience. And so I want to introduce you all today to Miss Chutima Barrios. Ms. Chutima, how are you doing today, ma’am?

Chutima Barrios (02:56)
Thank you so much for having me. I’m very good. How about you?

Q Edmonds (02:59)
I’m

Doing great. I’m doing great. Thank you for asking. You are what my wife calls an in two person, right? So if I say, How are you? You say, I’m good. And you like you’re that type of person. So that’s what my wife calls an in two person. So I appreciate you asking. I’m doing very well. And listen, ma’am, I am the type I like to dive right in, right? So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. And then if you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got.

To the passion the way you are now.

Chutima Barrios (03:31)
Yeah, thank you so much for the question. so currently my company, Rent Roll Capital, we do real estate, specifically apartment investing. How it works is we I found a deal with my business partners and then we put together the deal. We bring it to investors. And if they are interested, they’d like to invest with us, they then make a decision, co-invest with us. So they don’t have to pre-commit on the investments. They can look at the deal, ask questions, learn about it.

There’s no cost on that. Right. And why I like doing real estate or apartment investing is well, number one is cash flow, predictable cash flow from the asset. Two, we get tax benefits. If you have and and I’m gonna say you have to still consult with your tax attorney and CPA if it’s applicable to your situation. just so just don’t take my whole words about the tax benefit here.

And then the last thing is we get to leverage, right? So if we want to buy an apartment building, we don’t have to be billionaires to buy the building. We can leverage from the bank and then we pull money from investors, group of investors together to buy, and then we grow wealth together. That’s the three main reasons that I like about apartment investing. And how I get to hear is I have to thank my

Humble and modest family background. So I grew up in Thailand and my grandparents migrated from China. And this was a hundred years ago.

So my parents grew up in a modest background as well. My dad didn’t even have education. I think he studied until sixth grade and then he left school to help his parents or my grandparents work at a little restaurant. And so that’s how

That that’s our bringing up, right? Yeah. That’s our background. But I was so passionate about like growing wealth, getting to financial freedom because of that. Because I every time I asked for toys from my parents, they would say no. Right. As a child. Right. That’s why I’m like, how can I get more? Right. So I that’s why I’m half interest in finance and investing. Yeah. And I did

Undergrad in finance and my first job was private equity investment so that helped me with the background of how institutional funds make investments how they do forecasting and be more or they focus on risk protection not just looking at upside. Yes. Yeah. And so that’s the whole story about like my background and then

Similar to many audience, or maybe some of you who are still indecisive whether they should still continue focusing on stock investments or do real estate investing. I’m gonna say it depends on the timing. Every investment asset classes have its own cycle. So stock has been on the upcycle in the past few years. and I don’t know the timing. I didn’t look into stock market.

Recently, so I can’t say anything about it. But real estate investing also have cycle as well. And in the past few years, I believe that we have gone through the bottoms of the cycle. And we are in the bottom right now too. Yeah. Right. So so it would be the the the next I would say something that excites me to invest or start investing in real estate right now if you had not done so.

To find the right properties, look at the numbers, and of course you have to educate yourself too. Don’t just like put money in to the investments without understanding how it works. anyway, so I started real estate investing almost 10 years ago. That’s when I became a mom. And as like many others who work as W-2 employee.

I put my money into 401(k). I put some extra money to stock market of my own. but then when I found out that my daughter had food allergy, and it’s a long list of allergies, not just one type. So I had to take her to see the specialist in order to help her treat and outgrow food allergy. So just for one type of the treatment.

It took 18 months, insurance didn’t cover, we had to pay 10,000 of dollars off of out of our own pocket. Yeah. That’s when I realized I need more cash flow and a backup plan because as a mom, working mom, you started to feel insecure of my career. Yeah. so I was like, okay, what is the alternative?

What what are other alternatives for me to get cash flow can be a backup that I can still take care of my family and become my career? That’s when I started looking into real estate investing. And once I start, I never look back.

Q Edmonds (09:45)
Yeah,

Yeah, yeah. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing, letting us know where you are, kind of how you got started, the passion behind it. you know, I often like to ask because I want to peek into your thought process just a little bit as a business owner. So I often say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Destiny has no wasted moments, meaning we’re learning from the success, we’re learning from our failures, and it’s fortifying the people that we are today.

So I would love to know what has the moments taught you about yourself? Has they taught you discipline, resilience? Has you changed the way you looked on innovation? Like what has the moments taught you about you?

Chutima Barrios (10:57)
Yeah, so actually for me, I think it was the analysis paralysis. When you say destiny, the like dot rate, right? and I think it’s also and I’m focusing on real estate investing because that’s like my pivotal moment of how it changed my life entirely. in the beginning, when I was like, Okay, maybe I should do real estate investing. And it’s had maybe, right? Because

It’s a lot of money, like I mean, to invest. It it requires the down payment twenty percent. Yeah. Right. And like stock market, you can start like one thousand dollars, even five hundred dollars. But for real estate, you want to put out twenty percent and it can be depends on what kind of assets you buy, ten thousand, fifty thousand, and so on. Yeah. So that’s when I and with my background of doing analysis, finance person, I was like, Okay, I gotta

Make sure the numbers right and you know, so it’s all about like thinking, overthinking, and I call it analysis paralysis. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that’s that’s the one thing that I learned. and it’s also as a business owner, maybe you do something else and you have some big decision to make and you can got trapped into this moment as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Q Edmonds (12:19)
I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that reflective answer. I know that’s really gonna help people. let me ask you this. What’s one operational thing that you’ve put into place the last two years that’s made the biggest difference in how you run deals?

Chutima Barrios (12:35)
What what the inspiration thing? Yeah.

Q Edmonds (12:38)
Okay,

So so which one op operational thing, yeah, operational thing that you’ve put into place the last two years that’s made the biggest difference on how you run deals?

Chutima Barrios (12:49)
Well, so first of all, I’ve been doing networking with operators for a long time. So and that’s before I started a company too. Yeah. So as I mentioned, I have been investing in real estate for over nine years and during the time I always go to networking events to get to know people. Like it’s very important to keep networking with real estate professionals. Yeah. Right. whether it’s vendor, property management company, lender.

Everybody. So I get to connect with the operators. And that’s when I kind of like have my own, I call it a book of contact, right? And I know if I want to take action, let’s say if we want to invest in certain market, I know who to reach out to. Yeah. the list of lender, the operator, the property management company. So that’s kind of like operational book.

That I have, but also with the launch of AI, it also helped me organizing, systemizing my business, my records, and even doing analysis of deals at a massive volumes. Like I can analyze fifteen properties in two hours, thanks to AI. Yeah. So that’s like that’s the the I think the to answer your question, the operation

Has been evolving a lot too, with AI.

Q Edmonds (14:21)
Man.

No, I love it. Yeah, AI is really helping make so many different things efficient for sure. what’s next for you? What’s the next real goal? Like what are you looking to solve at scale next?

Chutima Barrios (14:31)
Yeah, so I am looking forward to raising more capital from investors, those who look forward to predictable cash flow, enjoying the tax benefit, tax efficient investments, and grow their wealth, protecting that capital through the real estate investing. And as I mentioned earlier, I believe this is the right time to go in. And again, we have to be careful, still continue doing due diligence, understand the market, the location.

The property itself before we make decisions. But generally, like overall with the cycle, this is a good time to get in. I look forward to getting into distress properties.

And there will be a lot of properties that has been done financially wrong in the past few years. So that’s the type of properties I would love to go into.

Q Edmonds (16:08)
Absolutely. I love it. I love it. I want to talk to you a little bit about relationships, right? I want to hear your philosophy on business relationships and also talk about some of the relationships that you have in business now, like some of people that you’re working with, how you know, people that may, you know, work with you and offer you referrals, send you business, or you may send business to other people’s way. So I just want you to talk to me a little bit about relationships and how they work in your world.

Chutima Barrios (16:36)
Yeah, is this so important? It is still like human related, right? In this business. We we deal with humans, even the tenants. Tenants are humans. we work with property management company, human, even though we use AI to help with like some efficiency, we still need a lot of personal relationships to execute the business. and I think it it is so important in many ways, especially

Well, the lender, the brokers are so important to us because especially the brokers, they can bring us great deals, right? if we have good relationship with them. Because they they want to work with people who they know and can close the deal. Yes. It’s not just like sending this deal around the market and you know. So they want to help both buyer and seller across the deal. Yeah. lender the same way. They w they’ll do the work.

And they want to make sure that they lend it to the right people. Yeah. Right. So everything like I just can’t emphasize the importance of human relationship. But yeah, so but and that is why I went to networking events a lot too.

Q Edmonds (17:50)
Yeah. I love it. I love it. I’m always I love, you know, hearing about people’s name, you know, so I read Rent Roll Capital. Is there a story behind the name?

Chutima Barrios (18:03)
There’s no story. I was thinking about company name and I shared with my husband a few names and he’s like no no the he w didn’t like any of the name until somehow I don’t remember how it we came up with Rent Roll Capital, but yeah, he was like, Okay, let’s do it. It’s catchy. Yeah.

Q Edmonds (18:19)
Yep, yeah, I love it. Definitely catchy, definitely catchy. now listen, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Let’s say maybe you came in with a thought on your mind and you wanted to make sure our viewers knew this thought. I just want to kind of give you an opportunity and a space to land that message if there was something like that you came in with on your mind.

Chutima Barrios (18:42)
Yeah, I think like then these apply to just beyond real estate as well for and I believe your invest your audience are investors, right? Maybe new, maybe savvy, but don’t invest with just the hype. Like you have to really understand what’s going on in the market because there are also people who lost money from Bitcoin, from

Any other asset classes and in real estate as well because of the hype. Yeah. Yeah. So educate yourself, make sure you make informed decisions.

Q Edmonds (19:17)
Yeah, yeah. Well listen, Mr. Tima, I appreciate you coming on today. I appreciate you sharing your story, sharing your nuggets, your experience. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you?

Chutima Barrios (19:35)
Yeah, so first my email Chutima my first name [email protected]. Number two, LinkedIn. I would I I have I used to be active on LinkedIn. I took a break for the summer, but I’ll be back on it again. So you can follow me, Chutima Barrios on LinkedIn. Yeah.

Q Edmonds (19:57)
Well listen, let me say three things to you, Ms. Chutima. One, thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So thank you for your time. Secondly, thank you for your story, for the gift of your authenticity. I believe our stories, they plant seeds. And those seeds can they can grow at any given time. So I thank you for coming on and planting some real seeds. And lastly, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today.

Chutima Barrios (20:22)
Yeah, thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to to be here.

Q Edmonds (20:25)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard our guests. You heard Ms. Chutima. Her information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with her. Please let her help you out. Please do some investing with her. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here. Because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people, just like Ms. Chutima. So, ma’am, thank you again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.