From Advertising to Real Estate: A Unique Perspective

Stephen Schmidt (00:02.678)
Welcome back to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. I got a special treat for you guys today I got a churrunget in in the house and we’re gonna have an incredible conversation. He’s been a broker Since since I believe 2010 if I’m getting my dates, right he’s been in the real estate business since 2008 he was in sales for a couple years and then became a broker he hails from the great state of New York

and we’re going to get into a wonderful conversation. He’s not only just a broker, he’s also an investor and has a really unique lens to bring to the table. So we’re to get into a great conversation here. And I know you guys are going to get a ton of value out of it. So we’ll get started on that. But just remember, before we do at Investor Fuel, we help real estate entrepreneurs, service providers and real estate investors, two to five X their businesses so they can build the businesses they’ve always wanted in order to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. And with that being said, Sharanjit goes by Sunny. So Sunny, welcome to the show.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (00:58.36)
Thank you Stephen and thank you to all your viewers and thank you for having me on your show. I heard so much about it and it’s a privilege and an honor to be here and see if I could leave some tidbits of information and knowledge. Thank you.

Stephen Schmidt (01:13.824)
Well, we’re happy to have you. So let me ask you this. So you got started in the real estate space right around the time the market crashed, right? Which is the best time to get into it and the worst time to be in it if you’ve been in it for a while. But you came from the advertising space. What made you decide to jump two feet in and go hard into the real estate space in the first place?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (01:37.484)
Yeah, so in 2008, to me it felt like the roof was collapsing and I was just rushing in. What made me, I used to run an advertising agency on Madison Avenue.

financial tsunami hit, few of my biggest customers just went out of business. So I was just left scrambling like what exactly should be my next move. And that is when my grandfather’s saying came up. A few years ago, I had bought a house in Long Island and I was looking around and my grandfather used to say real estate. It’s called real because it’s real. That’s the only real thing in the world.

And then my father-in-law was into real estate sales and I asked him like, it a good business? He said, no, it’s very tough at this time. Nobody’s buying, everybody’s selling. And I said, shouldn’t that be a good time to get into because the buyers will have a lot of choices and the prices will be down. so I went into the market with a totally opposite view. now there are more choices for the buyers. have more choices. Price-wise,

location wise. years it took a lot of effort, lot of knocks at the door. Also to learn that people want to get into your car first and your office later. I used to drive a brand new Beamer 7 series in those days just to show around. But two years it gave me a lot of, as I said, lot of insight into the business and so far I’m proud of it. I have helped if not thousands but hundreds of my clients sold into very rich neighborhoods here.

Stephen Schmidt (02:58.709)
Mm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (03:15.45)
as well. And I tell my clients in the beginning, choose your own bank. I’m your broker. I will not advise you which bank which inspection, but everything should be independent. And for me, don’t ask me, I want to buy into this market because of that preference and this as long as you can afford it, you can buy into any market any locality. And then few years into this, I started looking I saw some opportunities, especially, unfortunately, during COVID. I hadn’t much to do.

and the market we all know we were all inside locked inside our homes I took my truck I started going upstate and now proudly I say like I can drive to Vermont and I won’t have to use my GPS from Long Island that’s how much I know about the area I saw some good deals I bought them I have also helped some of my clients acquire land, landed properties, big homes here as well and price-wise it’s great as I said so this has been a

great journey. reason I got into this is this real estate career, either you are on the side, broker, and there are other allied carriers, it’s never going to go out of fashion. We all need a roof over our head, four walls, that’s what I call a house. Then you can individualize it. But this is one industry which is going to stay here, which was here thousands of years ago, and thousands of years from now, we’re still going to need a roof over our head.

Stephen Schmidt (04:41.193)
You bet. Totally agree. Now let me ask you this. When you got started in the real estate space, coming out of the advertising business, scrambling to figure things out, what would you say was the biggest risk you took early on?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (04:54.52)
Yes, the biggest risk I took on and I it’s a very good question and I would love to tell everyone around this business it’s not like it’s gonna start giving you money from the day one or even week one or a month one or even a year one. You have to a lot of patience. That is the biggest risk I took. I asked my wife she took she was helping me in my business but when the business went down she volunteered she’s an account she said I can go back into my accounting profession.

We had two young kids, at that time two and five years old, and we had to take care of them. The biggest risk I took is the patients. have to have a

even when you want to real estate for a commission as a salesperson or a broker, you want to invest into it, you want to fix and flip, you have to have a lot of patience. That’s the only risk you’re going to take. Rest everything you can learn. And what I say is in America, we have a greatest system in the world.

Stephen Schmidt (05:49.845)
Hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (05:56.084)
Our homes are a benchmark for the whole world’s economy. And why we have experience problem, financial problem, because the whole market and the securitization, it went on the other side. But we have a greatest wealth creator in the world. American homes, American home market, and a lot of banks have learned, I would say investors have learned from that experience, again, coming back. Patience is…

Stephen Schmidt (06:11.966)
Hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (06:26.149)
is the biggest investment you can put into this business. Be patient and the rewards will come.

Stephen Schmidt (06:32.255)
Patience, yeah, I think that speaks more than even just real estate. It’s with everything, right? You have to have aggressive patience is what I like to call it, where you’re out doing the work, but at the same time, staying very, very calm to the result because it will come and you don’t want to stop too short.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (06:42.626)
Thank you.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (06:53.294)
Thank you. Yes.

Stephen Schmidt (06:55.571)
Wow. So let me ask you this, because you have a unique perspective as well, because you were born and raised in India, correct?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (07:02.89)
Yes, part called Punjab, like Sikh community, Punjabi community. It’s north of India, yes.

Stephen Schmidt (07:08.41)
wow.

Okay. So at what point did you come to the States and what was that experience like coming in? And do you feel like being raised in a country other than here has affected your work ethic and maybe even made you work harder than somebody that maybe has been born and was raised here?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (07:30.53)
Yeah, I came to US by the end of 2000, that was November 2000. And in India I was in a media publication house. By education I’m

Stephen Schmidt (07:37.993)
Mm-hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (07:45.998)
I I had a good education there. In US, my first lesson was hard work here pays off. Hard work, and I had to leave a lot of stuff I was comfortable in India to that side, and I had to pick myself again. As I said, at that time I had a young kid, three years old, and a wife, so we took an apartment after I stayed for some time at my…

basement, we took an apartment, worked at one job, two jobs, at one time I was working three jobs. Three jobs, one at the airport, one in sales, and another one, again, I think it was…

again, but that was commission sales. So at one time in 2002, I was working three jobs. And then I left one, the second one and the one job and then I started business. The one thing I learned in America, if you are working hard, and that’s a similarity between India and here. US hard work and also smart work, you have to see what is coming your way.

But other than that, I would say India and US both have a great democratic system. India is the world’s biggest democracy, US is the world’s oldest democracy. In the US, I have a saying to my kid, I tell both of them boys, I said in US you can be anybody or nobody, it’s up to you.

Stephen Schmidt (08:47.274)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (08:58.613)
Mm.

Stephen Schmidt (09:09.737)
Wow, what a good saying. Man, I’ve never heard anybody put it like that before. That’s really interesting. So let me ask.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (09:18.062)
because nobody owes us anything. Nobody owes us anything. There’s no privilege system. You work hard, your reward comes to you. You work smart, and work smart. First is work hard, and then of course smartness comes with it. And the main difference is in India, you go, yes, in some parts of India, bureaucracy, red tape, and a lot of other challenges. I don’t want to say it here. But in US, once you become successful, you can only

Stephen Schmidt (09:32.66)
Right.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (09:48.056)
become more successful if you keep yourself in check and your impulses in check. Nobody else is stopping you from becoming anybody or somebody.

Stephen Schmidt (09:59.158)
Yeah, that’s really good. I’m telling you, you can be anybody or you can be somebody. It’s up to you or nobody and it’s up to you to decide. I’m going have to teach that to my kids too. So let me ask you this in line with that because you talk about smart work as well, which is so crucial because there’s guys out there that are working their butts off 16 hours a day in the heat digging ditches for 45 grand a year. Not what I would exactly call

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (10:03.182)
Yes. no, but…

Stephen Schmidt (10:27.507)
the pinnacle of financial success. At what point do you think self-education also comes into play versus just traditional education through school, college, university, et cetera? How important is continued learning for you?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (10:44.038)
Self-education, will say for me and I personally think for everybody it comes before formal education. Your parents, your uncles, aunts, your society, your…

Stephen Schmidt (10:53.673)
Hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (10:57.582)
church, your community center, even the supermarkets. I used to help my grandfather. My father was a banker, he’s retired, but my grandfather, we had a family farm. And I remember like when I was five, six years old, I used to help him at the farm and then we would load stuff depending upon like at one time we used to load it on a bull card, then the tractor came, then the whole SUV came.

But every time, as I said, the whole idea was the formal education came later, but self-education and your environment, it teaches us a lot. So if I’m in real estate, I am wearing a suit, but if it’s needed and I’m inside my client’s house and there’s a tap leaking, I can fix a tap as well. I can fix a bulb. And I’m very proud of it. Handyman skills. In real estate, handyman

handyman skills are so handy. I go to my land which I am so proud in Catskill. do a lot of stuff and it also helps you unwind. A lot of, as you said, yes hard work. are so many people, I see people work so hard in the ditches and the fields and it builds a lot of tension with lot of energy. So you have to let that steam go. you have to find.

Stephen Schmidt (12:25.546)
Hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (12:25.684)
It could be a family gathering, definitely, education, your self-education comes before formal education. And that is everything, formal education just gets your foot in the door.

I took a real estate license, it allowed me to sell real estate for commission. But before that you have to know that a little bit, in the end everything is sales. First thing we sell ourselves to our close group. If you have to be in that, other than that if I don’t sell, somebody else, my cousin will be selling, my brother-in-law will be selling the same things in the group which I’m not selling. So self-education comes before formal education.

Stephen Schmidt (13:08.885)
What would you say have been some of the most impactful books that you’ve picked up in the last 20 years?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (13:19.982)
My recent one which I cannot put it down a few days ago when nations fail, nations go back, that’s why I believe, maybe I didn’t say the title right, it’s by Ray Dalio, the biggest funder.

Stephen Schmidt (13:29.183)
Hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (13:40.588)
and he describes the whole process. Yes, that is on the investment side. Rich dad, poor dad, that was one how…

Stephen Schmidt (13:41.258)
Right.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (13:49.57)
Rich people think, successful people think. By richness you mean the richness of mind. Somebody today, and as I said, I walked the streets of Manhattan with a million dollars in the bank and then nothing in the bank. But the richness is in your mind. Somewhere I read, I don’t remember the name of the book, it says you, how successful, when were you most successful when I was broke?

that because I had a plan in my mind. So some of the books definitely help rich dad poor dad but their author right now the way he’s saying market is about to crash you have to collect gold silver I don’t subscribe to that. In a society when everything is going man people are going to walk with guns and all you won’t carry gold with you. Jeff Bezos yes a book on

Stephen Schmidt (14:15.05)
Hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (14:41.378)
biography of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs. In Jeff Bezos’ biography, he worked at his grandfather’s farm or at his land. And he said, when you work with land, when you work with land, it provides everything. There’s nothing in our life which land does not provide.

So these are a of the books, Sapiens of course, but that’s a whole different perspective, but you all know already. Skin in the Game, Skin in Black Swan. Black Swan actually I picked it up immediately after the financial tsunami.

Actually, when I came in November, and I was working in Al Al Israeli Airlines at the JFK airport, and then unfortunately, September 11 happened, I was working at the JFK airport at that time, and I saw right in front of my eyes how we as a country, we as United States changed dramatically, but we did not change our character, we did not stop welcoming people. We are still a welcoming nation to the whole world.

Stephen Schmidt (15:17.033)
Wow.

Stephen Schmidt (15:38.907)
Hmm.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (15:46.428)
beacon of hope no matter whatever we hear on the screen. don’t want to be on the spectrum of Democrats or Republicans. We are a greatest hope in the world still. United States of America we still beacon of hope no matter whatever somebody and still today somebody can pick up. If one of your listeners is viewers and listeners is listening I’m available you can give my phone number and I don’t have any skin in the game. I don’t have books to market. I don’t have seminars to market. I can tell

them right now they can go on to sites like Craigslist and few other sites where they can buy a piece of land with owner financing even when they have no credit and as I said I don’t have any skin in the game I’m not selling any piece of land I’m not selling any books I’m not marketing courses or nothing else it’s it’s easy and it comes from self-education and experience

Stephen Schmidt (16:26.506)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (16:37.813)
Yeah, you bet. Yeah, that’s so good. Let me ask you this, because you do have a little bit of the investing side going on in tandem to the retail. What would you say your focus is over the next 12 to 18 months?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (16:56.046)
Okay, next 12 to 18 months will take us almost close to mid of 26 and then towards the end of 27. We all heard this week what happened. We got dragged into the Iran war. And again, I don’t have a side. As I said, what was needed to be done, it was done.

We are the last ones to know what happened in the scheme of things. But we have ambition, have right. But on the financial side, I can only talk. What is going to happen is I actually met, I exactly can’t find, Howard. He had an event in Manhattan and his title was, because he was.

His title was Apple Co-founder. He’s 90 year old. We talked about few things and I asked him the same question. He said, Sonny, you won’t believe we may go to 1930s levels.

where the prices may in next few years. And I said next few years, very broad based projection. Give me something nearby. He said the prices are going to collapse. I also see around, especially housing prices. They are inflated. Same thing happened in 2007. People did not believe. People thought it was the bank’s fault. In the end, it’s a buyer’s fault. What happened is there is a, we call the social proof. If somebody A buys it, B has to buy, C has to buy social proof.

mentality everybody has to buy it. Rising tide lifts everybody and then when the tide goes down as Warren Buffett said everybody saw everybody was swimming naked.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (18:38.958)
We see prices in millions of dollars. Definitely there is going to be a squeeze on the market, but real estate is local. So in Dallas, you may have a few neighborhoods which are local and the people, the buyers paid 100 % there. So that market is not going to go down. But then you’re going to see Miami. Here in New York, there are some towns we’re going to see definitely go down. But Jericho, Hicksville, best example I can give in New York, in Long Island, in Nassau County, Nassau County is one of the richest.

Stephen Schmidt (18:39.7)
Alright.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (19:08.912)
Don’t do

Hicksville used to be a town where when I started homes were like 200,000 300,000 nobody was buying today you search Hicksville the homes are selling for three million dollars one of the some of the expensive and the people are from India and Indian Indian community has migrated in a large large part there so for next 12 to 8 months all I can say definitely there is going to be a price squeeze on everything not only on real estate on everything around so be careful what you

maybe you want to wait a little and of course this is not good as a real estate profession but I cannot guide my buyers, my clients just to earn a few bucks extra of commission. So maybe it’s a time, good deals are coming definitely.

Stephen Schmidt (19:57.418)
Yeah, so I guess on the same note, kind of the same question with all of that factored in, what are you going to be focusing on in the next year to year and a half?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (20:06.786)
Yeah, I’m going to be focusing on helping my buyers. There are going to be more properties available in the market even now and going to be more and more properties available. I have most of my life I have been in my real estate career. I’ve been on the buyer side. I will be educating any call I get it to my buyers. Like if you are not in a hurry a month or 15 days doesn’t hurt. But if you’re planning to buy all cash, you are the king right now. are going to be more inventory.

And I will be, as I said, I’ll be focusing more on more on established towns, then I will get out of speculation if I’m an investor fix and flipper. If I’m a fixer, I will go into more established town. I will not venture out into any speculation right now. I will keep my money in cash for now. I don’t know. Some people want to keep it in gold, blockchain, this and that. I would rather buy a piece of land in an established neighborhood piece of property, which may go 2%, 3%, 5%.

and down instead of a speculative market like Miami and so many towns in California, New York and Jersey, Florida. So instead of spec… I will get out of speculation if I am…

Stephen Schmidt (21:23.187)
But are you gonna cool on the investing side of things for the next? Season and kind of wait to see what happens or what’s your strategy there?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (21:31.99)
No, I want to buy more pieces of land. The reason land, raw land, taxes are very low or almost no taxes on raw land. Nobody can steal it. Nobody can vandalize it. There’s no fire insurance needed. There’s no death insurance, that insurance. It’s just a piece of land. So I would rather if I, let’s say, I’ll give one example. There’s a town, there’s an area outside of New York, one hour from…

anybody can know. IBM is invested there, Amazon is invested there, a lot of other companies are invested there. The community is growing. But you can still go and buy a quarter acre of land in Fishkill, Wallkill and few other surrounding areas, so under $100,000.

quarter acre, maybe half an acre, maybe an acre. And if my investment focus is there, and then of course you apply for the permits. If you want to build your own home, if you want to buy an existing home, you’re the end user, you’re the buyer. Yes, there are going to be more choices. This this is, could be something to act on now. But as a real estate investor, especially in the land, this one and you said 12 months to, and I apologize, I say sorry in advance.

somebody’s misfortune could be somebody’s fortune. So if somebody is going to sell a piece of land which they acquired at highly phenomenal rates, I will be the buyer. I will advise my customer, my client, my friends, my family, like, oh, let’s buy a piece of land. And I will personally buy it as well. Raw land. And I will stay out of, as I said, commercial. Commercial, I don’t want to do anything, especially the office market and all those office, anything to do with commercial.

You go around the street in any part of US, there’s next door mom and pop, pizza store is closing, subway is closing. What is coming up there? Some kind of urgent care, medical care, it looks like everything related with medical. But then you have Congress talking about taking billions of millions of dollars away from all those programs, Medicaid and Medicare. So what is going to hit? It’s going to hit the same medical market.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (23:46.414)
So what comes from up is going to crush the market down. So residential, single-family home is still going to be a good bet if you can find a good one in an established neighborhood or just a raw piece of land. Or just go to a REIT, real estate investment trust. That’s a whole other market. Just put your money there and see. But you do your own research. This is not an investment advice.

Stephen Schmidt (24:01.258)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (24:07.699)
Right, yeah, 100%. Well, Sonny, we’re super appreciative of you coming on and sharing some nuggets with us today and with our audience. If people want to connect with you for more, learn more about you, where should they go for that?

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (24:20.11)
Yeah, they can email me my email for the business is Whitestone1979 at gmail.com. simple. Whitestone1979 at gmail.com. That’s my one.

and they can call me 646 875 8495 that’s my Google voice number and as I I would love to you don’t have to be a client you don’t have to be a customer, buyer or investor or anything call me you can drop me an email text message I would love to help but again as I said this is not an investment advice you do your due diligence you can ask me a question as a friend or someone you met in your local church your community center like hey what do you think about reset this is not an

investment advice but I would love to walk you through what I was at one time as I said I came to US became a millionaire became a penniless earned my money back and I would love to help anyone

Stephen Schmidt (25:17.941)
There you go folks. Well, we’re talking to the man that’s built the American dream, lost it and built it all over again. We appreciate you coming on Sunday. So go show them some love folks from the Investor Fuel family and the Real Estate Pros. We appreciate it a ton. We’ll see y’all in the next episode.

Sharanjit Singh Thind (Sonny) (25:31.832)
Thank you, Steve, and thanks to your viewers and have a wonderful blessed day ahead of you. Thank you.