How a $45K Chicago Rental Grew Into a Global Real Estate Brokerage | Mohan Kakarlapudi

Mohan Kakarlapudi (00:00)

So especially me, the very first client who came across me, maybe we have 200, 300, 400 people. I still give them a call. I still meet with them. they become my personal friends, actually.

So they no longer my, actually I consider them my client. I consider them personal close friends actually. So that’s the trust one need to build. That’s the gold, that’s the silver, that’s the platinum. So if you cannot build that kind of a truthful relationship, it’s very difficult.

Scott Bursey (01:02)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast Powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. Glad you’re with And today we’re delighted to be joined by Mohan Kakarlapudi, the designated managing broker and founder of Sohum Realty, a private real estate services firm built on long relationships and careful one on one deal work.

Mohan leads the firm from the front, carrying the broker’s responsibility for his clients and the founder’s responsibility for the business behind them. Listeners get ready for a clear, grounded conversation about running a brokerage the personal way. What it takes to earn a client’s trust and how a relationship first firm holds together in a fast moving market. Mohan, welcome to the show.

Mohan Kakarlapudi (01:50)

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to this conference. I am very thankful to you.

Scott Bursey (01:55)

It is excellent having you here and to help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the ninety second highlight reel, if you will, of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Mohan Kakarlapudi (02:07)

Yeah, can you repeat that again a little bit of a lag there.

Scott Bursey (02:12)

If you could tell our listeners how your career started and what you’re concentrating on right now as far as your business endeavors go.

Mohan Kakarlapudi (02:19)

Yeah, we started our business as an investment company in 2013. So me and along with my wife. So we purchased our first property using our 401k. When we were other business, we sold that business, were looking around in 2013 in Chicago area. We found our first three bedroom and a two bath at the center of Chicago around 45k, a bank owned property. So then I looked around, I did not.

contact anybody I did not attended any podcast, no YouTube lectures or nothing. So just with a common sense and I get feeling, said, well, 45K in the center of Chicago, how low it can go, right? So then I went ahead, we invested our 401K that we rented out fantastic. Then I said, my God, this is brilliant. Why people are not doing it. Then I went and bought my second one, third one, fifth one, tenth one, during the period of

2013, 2014. So that point in time, still the property values were still very low across the US and especially in Chicago. Then it started picking up and still you can see until 2020 the property values were still decent. So naturally when after we bought and we said since anyway we are full time, let me take my broker license. And then after I took my broker license, then I started buying the property.

spreading the word across to the people around and say, hey, this is a wonderful market, you could start investing. So lot of some of our friends were skeptical as always, but some of the people ventured into that. And then we started picking up from there. And then being a broker, then I said, well, anyway, I’m a broker, why don’t I become a managing broker? So then I became a managing broker. And then I said, why should work for some other company? We started our own branding called Sohum.

And then I added now we have 15 brokers who work with us since that time. So we’re not very big in that brand. We still kind of a very booty real estate firm where we add the people who are into that. And then naturally when we were into brokerage and then we said, these are our properties people, why don’t you do property management by ourselves? So that’s how currently even myself, I have a proprietary company who invests.

Essentially, we’re a brokerage company. We scout for the property. We buy the property, value property. And we have a team who does the repair work. And we have good relationships all these years. So we hack for the property. We repair them. We put it on rent. So for my own company and then for the other investors, and then we manage them. So that’s how we have been so far has been doing in Chicago. We expanded into North Carolina market.

And then during the last two years, we see the interest rates going up and everything. said, it looks like had to look outside the United States. Then we expanded into UAE, United Arab Emirates, and Dubai. We’ve been doing a fantastic job. So since we are from India, I said, is the right time I should get into before US picks up. Let me go around the world and try to find out where the opportunities is all our experience and investors that we gained all these years.

Then we opened our office in India recently. And then we had a tie-up with a brokerage company reputed in Kenya, Nairobi. And we are scouting for in Mexico. So this is what is our story so far has been.

Scott Bursey (05:38)

Wow, what a journey, Mohan. That gives us a great place to start. what really caught my attention about you was the way that you carry both jobs at once. You’re the broker on the deal and the founder building the firm behind it. Most people pick one side of that. You chose both. And that says a lot about how you work. Taking that a step further, what is the strongest part

of your brokerage model today.

Mohan Kakarlapudi (06:05)

Yeah, so as you rightly pointed out, majority of these investors are first time, second time. So they’re not into full time, into the investment side of the thing, right? So they are into IT, they are doctors, they are engineers. So this, they want to test the water. So what I figured it out is, unless they don’t trust from AQC, they cannot hire, let’s say, I just am a broker. I can just tell them, yeah, go ahead. And it’s a wonderful opportunity. Yes, that is true.

They can go and buy. But after that, once they have the property, unless we don’t have the same confidence that we can manage the property very efficiently, it’s going to break down. So unless somebody cannot provide the trusted solution from A to Z, scouting from and putting the money. So that’s what sometimes we call it as we are a real estate investment, a company. You just trust us, we’ll do A to Z for you. We’ll scout for the property, manage it.

put the money into your bank account, do the repair thing, everything in between. So then you need to touch anything. So that’s what we see is our strength actually.

Scott Bursey (07:08)

Mohan, what do your best clients value most about working with you?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (07:13)

So my best client is actually is for the trust that they come with, that they trust we bring to the table. So because they have to trust with their money, so this is not a small amount of money. So initially when they come along with me, we started investing 50, 60 K and now we are at a multi-million dollar investment. We buy 90 properties in North Carolina worth of $6 million. So it’s all the trust.

It’s all that they need to believe your ability. It’s all you have to believe the decisions that we make are in best interest of them. So once you build trust, that’s what I, like a kind of a maniac to try to save the trust we build with the people. So in this business or any business, trust is everything. So if you build a trust, if they can trust you, they’ll give their life perhaps. we don’t ask them anything.

So that’s the same thing. See, we have these investors in here. They never visited, for example, Kenya and Nairobi, right? So if I say, yeah, Kenya and Nairobi is the best place because they already worked with me last 10, 15 years, immediately they’ll buy into that. we invested. Mohan told us these are the first excellent investment. We already made money. It’s been going very good. So I think they have to come back and try to address, yeah, he’s taking the best decision.

Let’s go and invest in Nairobi or UAE or some other place. So that’s my first thing is if you lose the trust, it’s everything, right? So we safeguard, we work towards the day and that’s our core strategy.

Scott Bursey (09:16)

Absolutely. People do business with folks that they know, they like, and they trust. Thank you for breaking that down. And Mohan wondering, no business is perfect. Where does your process break down occasionally?

What is one thing that you’re still trying to work around here recently?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (09:35)

one thing I’m working around is definitely the people. There is no bigger trouble for an entrepreneur than the people. So I’ve been working very hard to put these systems into place. So even though these things look so rosy from the outside, sitting here and executing and making the deals across the ocean in India, especially in a growing market, especially here,

America is well matured, there’s a straight line. So there’s not a lot of the things that one should be thinking about in the United States. So we are all so fortunate. So once the property value falls down a little bit, you should not be looking left and right. You should go and buy. Nothing will go wrong. Whereas that’s not the case across the world. Like India, have so many other… There’s no real estate laws existing in majority of that part of the world.

But you should have somebody whom you can trust. So it’s one in far between. In order to have a billion people whom you are going to trust, right? So it takes that kind of a teaching. So we are trying to build that. One is building that trust with the local people, local clientele, and all those things that comes into it. So the difficult part is trying to work with the people, right?

So I set up a brokerage company in India. It is such a difficult thing. And then also here, we need to have the accountant, tax guy, then, the routine of those business things. Somebody has to pick up a phone, being me like kind of a maniac, we need to do that kind of an excellent five-star service. I don’t want to see anybody, making an outlet. So that’s the difficult part. That’s what we’ve been, putting the software behind it.

make all those things happening together with, everything that’s what is the difficult part right now.

Scott Bursey (11:18)

Appreciate you breaking that down. Where are you seeing the best opportunity for a buyer or an investor today?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (11:25)

Yeah, so as I always say is right now at this point in time still, you United States being so big, so vast is always those opportunities still exist, right? So I would never write up on here investing here. is a huge market, but the systems are there. The opportunity is there. Sometimes you just, you have to start like, let’s say in 2014, had to, the properties across everywhere. You just got to go and grab as long as you believe on them.

Right now, that’s not the case. have to put 10 offers and then, the price that you want, so somebody you can buy. So the amount of work that you need to get into trying to find those properties is significantly higher. Right. So, but that doesn’t mean that still opportunities you can look into always, you should as an investor, one should always try to stick to his price point, not what the market offer. Say this is my price point below that I cannot make any money.

So there are always people who want to exit out of those properties for whatever the reason. So they are, one in 10 maybe. So you have to carefully, you have to spend significant amount of time and resources. If you still want to invest in the United States, still you can make money. So that’s one thing. As I said, this international market like Kenya, like UAE, these places are going like crazy.

So that is what our majority of our bet, especially our investment companies, are trying to invest significant amount in UAE and to Nairobi. Not in that much in India. India is not the market to invest, to generate a return of your investment. So there are those kinds of markets still we are trying to do. For us right now, two markets are working very good in Dubai and Nairobi.

So would definitely recommend if somebody is interested to explore that part of the world, I’m always there with you. So come to me.

Scott Bursey (13:49)

Mohan, you touched on the international market aspect of things too. What does the next chapter look like for your firm?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (13:56)

Yeah, my next chapter, we are deeply rooted here and then we keep on expanding into the places where there are opportunities inside the United States and things will settle down a little bit with the interest rate. I think perhaps maybe the property values may come down. We are hoping, maybe a year or two. So we still are about to, we will wait for the market to become a little more investor friendly. So that’s what our strategy is here.

And then until that time, we will keep on investing and exploring other international markets. people do come across someplace like Croatia, some part of Albania, this part of Europe are also wonderful, very entry level kind of a thing. For our kind of thing is small time investors. The thing that we deal with is not a multi-million dollar investor to that level, somebody who can invest 100k, 150k,

So those a very small mom and pop investment process so that we can grow there. So that’s what we see the opportunity.

Scott Bursey (14:55)

what is your next big move? Something that you’re looking to capitalize on, either international or right here locally?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (15:02)

Yeah, so our next move right now is we just entered into Nairobi actually very recently, five, six months ago, and we are getting big on Nairobi. anybody who knows Nairobi and Kenya, trains are there across everywhere. So there are more trains than the actual buildings or something. It’s going like crazy. Right. So even in United Arab Emirates, you see if you get into Dubai, of course, there are some with the walls and things.

softened a little bit, but it’s not going to be permanent or anything. They’re going to settle down one way or the other, people will move on. So Dubai is really, we are very bullish about the Dubai market, especially with the European economy coming down significantly, as anybody can see in the news, France, Germany, UK. So these people are virtually in front of our eyes, migrating to Dubai. So multi-million and…

that one of the statistics is mind-boggling is a small place like Dubai. Last two years, they have attracted the multi-million dollar investors to Dubai. So they’re ranked number one across the world, given the big United States where the net migration of the multi-millionaires. So that means there’s definitely people who are multi-millionaires. They don’t just simply move. They study the market, local government rules and regulations, long-term stability, and so many of those things.

So at this point in time, we are more bullish on the UAE and the growth markets versus United States. So I see until another maybe a year or two, so definitely things will change over here. Definitely we are here to come back. But until that time, that’s our place we are bidding big.

Scott Bursey (16:36)

Appreciate you letting us in on that. Do you work mostly with investors or with families buying for themselves?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (16:43)

Yeah, that’s a good point. or unfortunately, our majority of the investors are still from United States because we are based out of here. So the people here in the United States, they’re not going to go and live either in India, Maybe sometime soon, or UAE. They are well settled. They have been here with their family, 20, 30, 40 years. So those are our clients, majority of the time. So to answer that straight away, majority of them 90.

5 % of the people are the investors from United States. Either they go and invest in India for their families or UAE for the growth or in Nairobi, we are still exploring to go and invest. They’re not going to go. They just go and enjoy perhaps for a vacation. But apart from that, they don’t live permanently in those countries.

Scott Bursey (17:29)

Mohan, you have international ties. What does your professional network look like right now?

your network of people, either abroad or right here in the United States or maybe both of them intertwined.

Mohan Kakarlapudi (17:42)

Okay, so the majority of the professionals here in the United States are well established doctors. So they’ve been working in the IT sector last 30-40 years, high network individuals. Some of them are small businesses here in the United States. They want to diversify. And then they’re of familiar with these places. their aunt lives there, they’re already familiar with UAE, their parents lived in, some time back.

So those people, do know bits and pieces of these countries. It’s not completely unknown, but they do not know because they came here 30, 40 years back, they do not know what is going on at this point in time. So just simply I said, recently we came across somebody who kind of brought up a real estate agent has been here for quite some time. She do go to the Nairobi all the time to Kenya, Mombasa, not in Nairobi.

Mombasa is another city in Kenya. Nairobi is a big city. You are surprised? You say, my God, I never knew. Kind of I go to every year. See, sometimes the opportunities are until somebody comes and tells you, even in your own city, that’s how majority of the time we have, right? Even in Chicago, I’ll not be surprised. There will be a small pocket of Chicago. It’s too huge. There may be wonderful opportunity. Some agent or somebody will tell you until the time they tell you, we do not know.

So that’s what I see as always, meet with the people, listen to the people, go and talk with them. that’s it. So yeah, to answer you. So the people are across everywhere, doctors, specialty of them, engineers, and those are the majority of

Scott Bursey (19:09)

Your network really is everything. Thank you for that excellent breakdown. Mohan, let’s dive deep. If you had to build your brokerage all over again from zero, no clients, no pipeline, nothing, and limited funds, what is your very first move?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (19:26)

Beautiful question. It’s all building one brick at a time. Initially, takes that kind of a slog. Initially, for a year or two, I don’t know what I’m doing. But I just need to keep going. So it’s been so much of a time, initially, to try to trust. So one should not abandon it. So majority of the time, the industry

majority of the people who take the real estate broker license, 80, 90 % of the people have not exactly created to 90 people they quit being a real estate broker within next four or five years. So that much is the churn out rate. So but that doesn’t mean that you cannot do the business in spite of all the competition. Right. So you add one at a time, you take care of them in so fundamental, such a kind of a way, you need to make sure that the goes out and try to give you a rep

So that doesn’t happen in one day, one month, and one year. So you had to be consistently doing, that trust with the people that were associated. So then after one year, two years, three years, you stay in the market. So that pool of the people that you work with keeps on growing. As I said, we just started with one property without knowing zero about the real estate. I just owned my house, that’s it. So we just started everything with one property. So one tenant at a time.

one investor at a time, one real estate broker client at a time. So don’t let just try to fool around kind of, I just sold this out, hands off. That’s it. This is your house. we never do that. So especially me, the very first client who came across me, maybe we have 200, 300, 400 people. I still give them a call. I still meet with them. they become my personal friends, actually.

So they no longer my, actually I consider them my client. I consider them personal close friends actually. So that’s the trust one need to build. That’s the gold, that’s the silver, that’s the platinum. So if you cannot build that kind of a truthful relationship, it’s very difficult.

Scott Bursey (21:25)

Incredible advice right there. Thank you for that, Mohan. And Mohan, for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals, what’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Mohan Kakarlapudi (21:41)

yeah, my personal phone number you can call it 630-280-9197. I’m always available. And my email address mohan@sohumrealty.com. So I’m a passionate entrepreneur, so sky is the limit, too many places, too many things. So I sit here trying to look into, my God, how many opportunities. But if you do it right attitude, one day at a time, everything is possible. Yes, there are difficulties.

But you do it with a positive attitude. Just ping me. It’s not that you need to buy with me or you need to make me any money. I just want to make sure whatever the experience that I went through being a first time immigrant. So, right. So I just gave me one dollar in my pocket. I don’t know anything. The United States, left, right, east and west, I do not know. So you can see somebody like me can do. I was not even able to speak English.

So somebody like me can do these things. this is a wonderful opportunity. So if you try to focus on the negative side of the things, that’s not going well, that’s not going to well, everything will not go well as you think supposed to go. You just have to get up, meet with the people, keep doing, you will find the people in your path of the thing and people will help you. a lot of people are there to try to guide you, help you, go and ask them, give a call,

Out of 10, one will definitely pick up your phone.

Scott Bursey (22:59)

Mohan, thank you for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros podcast.

This has been an absolute master class. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Mohan, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everyone.