From Raw Land to Luxury Apartments: Real Estate Development Explained

Avni Patel (00:00)
Yeah, so many times, especially as I’m learning in real estate and dealing with townships, you reach a a wall which you feel like you cannot go through. But there’s usually other solutions. Maybe you don’t see the solution in the moment, but if you give yourself some time, if you speak with some people, try to find the answer, then you’ll find that solution. You have to be a little creative, think outside of the box.

You know, be a little bit open minded, talk to a l a lot of experienced people, and usually you’ll find your way.

Freddie Steen (02:04)
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Freddie, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space, particularly in land development and understanding how to get people from being unhoused to being homeowners, as well as manipulating the very difficult market sometimes of municipalities.

I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching this. So let’s dive in. So first off, so people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days? And what operates, what markets are you operating

Avni Patel (02:47)
Hi, Freddie. Thank you. This is Avni. I’m Avni Patel. I’m a part owner of Luvaan Capital. What we do is we kind of raise capital. We allow people to be a part of our project and give them access to build multifamily luxury apartments.

Freddie Steen (03:06)
Love it, love it. Avni, what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to navigate this difficult piece of permits, municipalities, and also how you’ve been able to combine a wealth of family and networking knowledge as far as your peer group is concerned. Now that’s not easy, especially in this climate. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Avni Patel (03:31)
Navigating you know, permits and township requirements is a learning process. It’s a learning curve. I’m I’m still learning and each township is different. I’m lucky that I have some good people with me on my team, a good mentor with me who really he’s very helpful. And his experience is kind of what allows me to be a little fearless in that matter. We have a good GC on our team. There his experience is amazing, and I think

They add so much value, which allows me to kind of get through those hurdles and learn as I as I do that. In terms of raising capital, that’s kind of what I’m good at. and I enjoy it because as long as I believe in the project and I know the product is good, I can and and my goal, my integrity is good, my intent is good, that I want people to make money. So then it’s that makes the the process so much so easy.

to get investors interested, make them a part of this team, and kind of operate together as a as one big family.

Freddie Steen (04:35)
I want to give this space to give a small peek into a private conversation that you and I shared prior to this pod. Sometimes it becomes the favorite part of the pod. Can you tell me the importance of Keith Frankel in your life?

Avni Patel (05:36)
Keith Frankel, yeah, he’s one of my first mentors. he I worked at his company. he manufactured dietary supplements in New Jersey and he kind of indirectly taught me a lot about real estate, to be honest, because he has what I know in New Jersey with his current business about three to four buildings in North Jersey. And

Even though he raised capital from outside investors to grow his business, he owned all his real estate. so that was a huge learning for me at a very young age that no matter how much what whatever business you are, whatever industry you’re in, owning your real estate has a lot of value, gives you a lot of leverage. And tomorrow, if you even need to partially sell your brand to raise capital or bring outside investors,

holding on to that real estate play, that that part adds a lot of value and gives you good good profit in the in the long run.

Freddie Steen (06:37)
Now every operator that I know has a moment or has a moment where things got real. I mean, maybe it’s a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Avni Patel (06:49)
Actually, just yesterday, I realized that I’m having issues with bringing water and sewage to one of my sites. So I’m in the process of working with the township to get them to allow us to bring it to the site. So hurdles like this, you know, they come and you have to learn to navigate them. Sometimes it might feel very a bigger problem than it is.

in the moment. so so I’m I’m learning as well. I’m navigating through. So that’s just an example of something very recent.

Freddie Steen (07:24)
Explain what you mean when you say sometimes it appears to be a bigger problem than it actually is. Can you unpack that for me?

Avni Patel (07:33)
Yeah, so many times, especially as I’m learning in real estate and dealing with townships, you reach a a wall which you feel like you cannot go through. But there’s usually other solutions. Maybe you don’t see the solution in the moment, but if you give yourself some time, if you speak with some people, try to find the answer, then you’ll find that solution. You have to be a little creative, think outside of the box.

You know, be a little bit open minded, talk to a l a lot of experienced people, and usually you’ll find your way.

Freddie Steen (08:05)
Hmm. That’s the that’s the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, when you’re talking about water and sewage and those type of challenges, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term. So let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you, Avni?

Avni Patel (08:26)
I am looking for new sites, new projects for my pipeline. there’s a lot happening in New Jersey right now. Netflix is moving to New Jersey, they they’re building a studio. There’s a lot of opportunity. so the goal is to find those projects, take advantage of those opportunities, have the pipeline ready because people are looking to invest. They just don’t want to do it actively, they want to do it passively.

So the funding part is is is also important. You’ll find your investors, you’ll grow your fund, you’ll raise your capital, but you can only do that if you have that hero product. So the goal is to always be in search and on the lookout for good pipeline projects.

Freddie Steen (09:47)
Line projects, Avni, that’s big. I mean, especially when you’ve already got this foothold in land development and bringing subdivision divisions from the ground up, the next move that can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up. And I think they’d benefit from hearing this.

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

Avni Patel (10:18)
I’ve kept in touch with a lot of good people. I’ll be honest, I’ve been blessed. and if if you’ve kind of built that that reputation, you know, that rapport with all your friends, family, neighbors, luckily I’ve had a successful startup over the past eight years, and a lot of people are aware of it. So

They knew that as an entrepreneur, I’ve already tasted success once. So a proven concept, a proven person, people like to bet on them. And that doesn’t mean I can’t fail, but I I do have that kind of experience with me. And so now I’ve applied it, I’m applying it to real estate. I’m still new, I’m still learning. but a lot of the people that are have trusted me.

for this for my c current projects, they said, I’m only doing it because it’s you. I’m only investing because it’s you. So it’s a blessing and a curse. Like it’s a two two way thing where a lot of responsibility, but also I feel blessed that I people are trusting in me as a person, as an entrepreneur.

Freddie Steen (11:30)
Yeah, you can’t you can’t fake that. Relationships are everything in this space. And especially the way in which you pride yourself on your integrity and your transparency and your connection with your clients, it seems like the end goal is a corporate experience. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Avni Patel (11:57)
They can email me. my email is [email protected] and my name is spelled A V N I @ Luvaan L-U-V-A-A-N-Homes.com. They can follow us on Instagram. They can DM us there. I’m very reachable on LinkedIn as well. My name A-V-N-I Avni Patel. They can add me and send me a message there.

Freddie Steen (12:18)
Avni, perfect. Well listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and your s perspective. We need more people in the space who are doing it the right way. I wanna ask, is there anything else that you would like to tell our audience before we wrap today?

Avni Patel (13:14)
I would like to just say that I’m still learning. I’m very new, but I’m able to luckily be a part of the real estate development sector and it’s it’s doable for anybody as long as they wanna do it. If you’re if you put your mind to it, if you work hard, it there is risk. Of course, there’s risk in everything, but calculated risk takes you a long way.

So once you make up your mind and you decide you want to get into it and go just go for it. Cause it’s possible. If I can do it, anybody can do it.

Freddie Steen (13:48)
Wow, Avni, thanks again for being here. Thank you, Avni. And for those of you tuning in, if you got a value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Avni who are out there building real businesses. I’ll see you on the next episode.

Avni Patel (13:53)
Thank you.