From Wells Fargo to Community Builder: Analyzing Value-Add, Raising Private Capital, & Scaling Nationwide

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Richard Kole, CEO of SVP Ventures, about his extensive experience in real estate and community revitalization. Richard shares his journey from starting in the industry to building communities across the United States, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and knowledge in real estate. He discusses the goals of his business, the impact of revitalizing communities post-COVID, and the opportunities available for investors. Richard also highlights success stories and his strategies for connecting with new investors, ultimately inviting everyone to participate in the investment opportunities he offers.

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
    • Richard Kole’s Website
    • Richard Kole on LinkedIn
    • Richard Kole on Instagram
    • Richard Kole’s Phone No: (443) 985-7846
    • Richard Kole’s Email Address: [email protected]

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Richard Kole (00:00)
  So the sky is the limit. There’s just no limit. It’s just incredible what’s out there. And it’s a wonderful opportunity for investors who are on the capital side, like private capital, private credit, alternative credit, you know, ⁓ because what we do, a lot of banks will not touch it.

  because it’s value add, broken glasses and ⁓ broken door, whatever, banks will not touch that. what we are creating now is we are creating a fantastic opportunities for investors that have capital. And so we structure it in such a way where we put these investors in the position of the lender of the bank, institutional banks.

  where they are doing a 30 % 30 year loan with a 7 % interest rate.

  Michelle Kesil (02:31)
  Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil And today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Richard Kole, who is working with SPP Ventures, helping to find value add properties. So excited to have you on the show today.

  Richard Kole (02:31)
  Thank you.

  Hi everyone, my name is Richard Kole I’m the CEO for SPP Ventures LLC and we are based off of Baltimore County in Maryland, but we do transaction and we do deals all over the United States.

  Michelle Kesil (03:16)
  Awesome. Yeah, first off, for those not familiar with you and what you do, can you share more about what your main focus is?

  Richard Kole (03:26)
  Yeah, so our main focus is we build communities across the United States. We revitalize and we partner with the county, the state and the federal to revitalize communities across the United States. So ⁓ we love what

  I love what I do. I’ve been doing this for over 25 years, right after 9-11, the terrorist attack in the United States. So since then, we’ve been rebuilding families and rebuilding communities.

  Michelle Kesil (03:59)
  Amazing. How did you get started in this business?

  Richard Kole (04:03)
  Good question. ⁓ I got started in this business in Los Angeles. ⁓ I’ve always been very curious about real estate. So a friend of mine, ⁓ I volunteered to work with him as a lender at Wells Fargo. And I was, he was working as a Wells Fargo as a loan officer with Wells Fargo Bank.

  So I told him I’m very interested in real estate. So he said, okay, yeah, come and work for me. But there is no pay. So I said, okay, I’ll do it. You know, so I came in, I started working with him and I learned a lot. So after a while, WolfTag go hired me and I was working with them. I was so good. I was part of the dream team.

  that originated over $1 billion of ⁓ real estate mortgages for Wells Fargo. And I’ve been hooked since. I love real estate. I love it.

  Michelle Kesil (05:09)
  Amazing. What are some of the main keys that have allowed your business to run smoothly?

  Richard Kole (06:05)
  So in real estate

  There are some things that knowledge is power. Let’s put it that way. Knowledge is power. What have helped me over a period of time and years was I learned from other people’s mistakes. And anytime I dig deep to find out why some deals didn’t work or why some people lose money.

  and I decided to teach people. I lost money too and I’ve made money. So I’ve learned a lot through the whole process. My goal is to make sure that anyone, and in fact I love to teach people. What I’ve been through, I don’t want nobody else to go through it. Nobody. Because I’ve made a lot of money and I’ve lost a lot of money because at the beginning I had no mentor.

  I had no guide. had nobody to teach me. And this guy that I worked with, it was very good, but he just didn’t have the time to mentor me. So I did a lot of mistake invested in wrong deals that don’t even make no sense looking at it now. But it’s what to answer your question. I’ve paid a lot of dues and I’m trying to keep many people from losing their money. So that’s why.

  ⁓ because of the years I’ve been doing this, I’m able to look at deals from different angles and able to identify the plus and the minuses. And if the minuses are overwhelming, it’s not going to work out. It’s not going to be profitable. You can do it, but you know, you lose money. So what I do now is I try to teach some people how to analyze deals.

  without emotional attachment. You know, so you’re really looking at deals for what it is.

  Michelle Kesil (08:01)
  That’s really important. Can you expand on that? What are some of the strategies that you use and teach people?

  Richard Kole (08:10)
  So, one of the things I’m doing now, ⁓ I’m giving back to people what I never received. When at one point I was looking for someone to hold my hand and walk me through real transaction and without any reservation.

  And for long time, I never found someone like that. I did sign up for a couple of mentorship, but my mentor is in Florida and I was in California. So transaction in California and Florida are completely different. And so, know, in a nutshell, what I’m doing now is I’m walking, I’m holding people’s hand.

  to, you know, step by step through the whole transaction, contracting, structuring the transaction, financing, interest rate. I mean, all these processes so that at the end they see the benefit of, you know, what mentorship means and, you know, they can go out on their own and make transactions happen. So that’s one of the things I’m doing now. But,

  Well, one of the one of the amazing things that’s happening now, which I told you earlier, was because of my experience, I’m able to analyze deals. I’m able to find deals 50 percent LTV ⁓ as is before value add. And that’s what most investors are looking for. So for some reason, we have a system we are able to use. We are using now to identify those. And we have we have about

  25 properties and communities, actually 50 when we add the other ones that we are working on right now. So we basically trying to expand our investors pool so that we have that capital and fund so that we can move faster and close a lot of deals.

  Michelle Kesil (10:13)
  Amazing. What are some of the goals that you have for your business?

  Richard Kole (10:54)
  So the sky is the limit. There’s just no limit. It’s just incredible what’s out there. And it’s a wonderful opportunity for investors who are on the capital side, like private capital, private credit, alternative credit, you know, ⁓ because what we do, a lot of banks will not touch it.

  because it’s value add, broken glasses and ⁓ broken door, whatever, banks will not touch that. what we are creating now is we are creating a fantastic opportunities for investors that have capital. And so we structure it in such a way where we put these investors in the position of the lender of the bank, institutional banks.

  where they are doing a 30 % 30 year loan with a 7 % interest rate.

  And so we put in private individual investors like you, if you have some money sitting aside instead of the money inside the bank, yielding 1%, 2 % interest rate will give you the same interest rate that the bank is giving.

  for the rest of your life. And not many people are doing this. ⁓ So we have some investors that we have started this arrangement with, and it’s fantastic. So we expanding our pool of investors for long-term vision ⁓ investors who just want to, for the cash flow. It’s excellent for the cash flow.

  because we rent it out after we fix it up, value add, we rent it out and it’s cash flowing. Some of them are retail properties like the property behind me now. They are commercial, misused, excellent community and excellent people and very prosperous and thriving communities. It’s just incredible. It’s amazing. I love it. I love it.

  Michelle Kesil (13:02)
  Yeah, that sounds amazing. I’m glad you’re passionate about it. Are you only doing this in the Baltimore area or are you doing this in other places?

  Richard Kole (13:06)
  I love it.

  So we do this all over the country. you know, like I said before, post COVID, a lot of communities are still recovering. Believe it or not, a lot of them.

  And so we are reaching out to those communities and some of them invite us to come and revitalize their community. So if anyone is watching now, they have communities that need some sprucing up and some funding and capital. Yeah, why not? We bring the capital, we bring the resources, we bring the people. And you know, after we stabilize it, then we’ll throw a party.

  Michelle Kesil (13:47)
  Incredible. I love that. Where have you done these communities? What are some of your success stories?

  Richard Kole (13:53)
  Thank you.

  Some of our success stories. This one behind us is in three phases. The first phase is an abandoned property that used to be a bakery for the community. And then, know, post-COVID, everybody left. And so now we are doing adaptive reviews.

  And the county was very supportive. They pay for the architecture, they pay for the awning, they pay for the exterior, you know, facade. I mean, it’s amazing. Baltimore County is amazing. So they’re doing that for us and it’s an excellent success story. So we’re looking to grand opening in 2026. It is just amazing stuff. Amazing.

  Michelle Kesil (14:40)
  Awesome. What are you looking to scale next in your business?

  Richard Kole (14:46)
  ⁓ what, ⁓ are we looking to scale? Is that a question?

  Michelle Kesil (14:50)
  Yes, that’s the, yes.

  Richard Kole (14:51)
  Yes, scaling the scaling the right now, we are able to do a couple of transactions in a year. But I do know that as we have established and expanded our ⁓ investors pool now, and many people are coming in and pitching in, I will be able to do even larger, larger transactions all over the country.

  So that is our plan and our goal.

  Michelle Kesil (15:23)
  Awesome. When it comes to growing your business and meeting new investors, how are you doing that?

  Richard Kole (16:11)
  Also, right now we do events. are hosting some events. One of the goals we’re trying to achieve is use this project behind me ⁓ as soon as the county ⁓ do the grand opening. will use that. In fact, we’re doing a documentary right now, which we’re planning to

  Either get to Netflix or get it to YouTube or just get it out there to Amazon for people to see before and after how a community that was run down and abandoned or whatever now becomes a thriving and successful story. So we’re working on that right now.

  Michelle Kesil (16:57)
  That’s awesome.

  What are some of the ways that you are able to identify what the right properties and communities are?

  Richard Kole (17:08)
  Yeah, so ⁓ the first indication is the people. We are very, very interested in the people. So apart from, of course, when you go through some communities, you can see some overgrown buildings. ⁓

  You can see the street, the trash not taken and things like that. But one of the biggest ⁓ flag for us, a cry for help, you will, is the county ⁓ and the city government. They are always looking for people like you and me that have a positive vision to come and fix things that need to be fixed because they don’t have all the money to do it.

  They want to do it, but their budget is short. So when me and you go in there and say, we are interested in doing this based on their invitation, their response is faster. Their approval process, know, permitting process is a lot faster. Sometimes they give us liaison, somebody in the office that works with us. So that’s one of the ways we identify some of these places and

  and you know, it’s partnership, it’s a team effort.

  Michelle Kesil (18:25)
  Yeah. How are you finding these places?

  Richard Kole (18:26)
  Bye. ⁓

  Do I find? How do I find them?

  Michelle Kesil (18:31)
  How do you find them?

  Yes.

  Richard Kole (18:35)
  Yeah, so ⁓ sometimes is someone in the county that calls us or in the city that calls us and say, hey, this community needs some help. ⁓ Yeah, our budget is low. We would like you to come and partner with us and and, you know, revitalize this, you know, this community. ⁓ Some communities have that program or revitalization program. And so those kind of ⁓

  communities, they’re crying for help. They’re begging for help. So we go there with architects and engineers and people that, you know, that will do the project with us and then we’ll submit. We start a process. We basically start a process. And when it comes to the funding and all that, then, you know, we do escrow and all that. So that’s basically what we do.

  Michelle Kesil (19:30)
  Awesome. And anyone can invest in this.

  Richard Kole (19:33)
  The estimates.

  Michelle Kesil (19:34)
  Anyone can invest in this?

  Richard Kole (19:36)
  Yes, anyone. Michelle, you can. Why not? Michelle, regardless of anyone, there’s no limit. There’s no limit. There’s no limit. So everyone is invited. Everyone.

  Michelle Kesil (19:49)
  Awesome. Love that. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you?

  Richard Kole (19:59)
  So the I’m very good with my personal email my email my phone let me give you my phone number first my phone number is 443 985 7846, 443 985 7846 I talk to anyone anytime and My email address is Richard my first name my last name 65 at Yahoo.com I’m still using Yahoo because we have a partnership with Yahoo. So [email protected] and I’m on Instagram too is the Richard Kole

  richone at yahoo.com at instagram i’m on instagram too and i do have another instagram account we call quantum rock quantum rock ⁓ on instagram so so

  The easiest way to reach me is my phone or my email. And if anyone is interested in all what I’ve just said now, I’ll send them pitch deck. I’ll send the all the information on project we’re working on, project we’re looking at, and how they can invest.

  Michelle Kesil (21:37)
  Perfect. Well, I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. Thank you for being here.

  Richard Kole (21:43)
  Thank you so much, Michelle.

  Michelle Kesil (21:44)
  Of course. Thank you so much. And for those listening to the show, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Richard, who are building real businesses, and we’ll see you on the next episode.

  Richard Kole (21:46)
  Thank you.