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Show Summary
In this conversation, Sam Elwood shares his journey from bartending to becoming a real estate investor and tech entrepreneur. He discusses his first real estate deal, the challenges he faced in the acquisition process, and how he transitioned into the tech space with his company, Riva, which focuses on AI-powered real estate underwriting. Sam emphasizes the importance of resilience and adaptability in his career, and he highlights the potential of technology to revolutionize the real estate industry.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Sam (00:00)
I’m essentially just solving my own problem. And I think with AI, you know, we have a chance to really just save a lot of time, not necessarily like replace people, but equip people in their roles to be able to be 10 times more efficient. And so, you know, that’s my goal with Riva. It’s really just based around real estate analysis, you know, kind of to go off on like what it actually does. Do an acquisition for a company every single day.I’ve been able to see the problem of real estate underwriting. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to underwrite a deal, especially when you start really getting into it. You’re going to be underwriting it multiple times, manually pulling all the comparable sales, double checking your renovation budgets, figuring out what price you’re going to exit the property at, then estimating how much it’s going to cost to even sell it with an agent, escrow, closing costs, all these little fees.
It takes a lot of time. And in my opinion, that can be solved with a formula and with artificial intelligence. And so we’ve built a platform that does that for you and seconds underwrites it builds a report for you. can look at it, update it, change things you don’t want. And just the goal is just save people a lot of time, a lot of money. Hopefully with AI, it’ll, you know, we’re going to get to the point where it’s, so accurate that, you know, you go into a deal and it can tell you, Hey,
Like this might be a bad deal. Like you’re going to be losing money on this. know, how many times have people gone in on a deal thinking they’re going to exit at this price because they missed this comp and now they’re losing $50,000, you know?
Dylan Silver (01:26)
That’s right. I mean, all the time.Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is based in beautiful San Diego, has a background in real estate acquisitions and is now building Reba, an AI powered underwriting software. Please welcome Sam Elwood. Sam, welcome to the show.
Sam (03:17)
I appreciate you having me, y’all, and looking forward to it.Dylan Silver (03:19)
I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.Sam (03:26)
Yeah, so great question. So I started working in real estate when I was 23 years old. Before I got in, I was just bartending nights, trying to make as much cash as I can from tips, everything. And then I got in at a big acquisition company in Southern California that purchases fixtures all throughout the Southern California region, working sales for them, closing deals, doing property analysis.We really focused on buying fixtures, had some long-term holds as well, did some wholesaling as well. So I’ve spent the past three years learning from the ground up with a company here and really just got my start that way. And then through them, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge about my first deal in San Diego this year as a long-term hold that I’m living in and house hacking and renting out one of the rooms.
and I was able to get it a really good deal, came in, property needed a ton of work, I did a full rehab, put about $60,000 into it. And because of how much rehab was needed, I actually walked into the deal and I have about $110,000 in equity in it now after only owning it for a couple months. So that’s how I got my start.
Dylan Silver (04:35)
Let’s talk about that deal.Let’s talk about this deal. I want to ask you about how you found the deal, securing financing for the deal. Was this a very straightforward process? Was it an off-market deal, on-market? Tell me about the deal.
Sam (04:39)
Yeah, of course.Yeah, so it was an off-market deal. through the connections made, you know, working in the past three years, like there’s a lot of, you know, off-market wholesalers in San Diego. So was able to get an off-market deal. It was a condo that needed a lot of work. And so I was able to get it at a really, really good price. And I came in and I put like $60,000 into it. I bought it for 410, put about 60K into it.
put a little money down and it recently appraised for 560.
Dylan Silver (05:20)
Wow. That’s pretty good. Are you gonna stay in it or are selling it?Sam (05:23)
Yeah.No, I plan on staying in it. I’m going to stay in here probably for another, we’ll see, for a few months, maybe a year max. I mean, I’m house hacking it. So I have a tenant in here paying down the mortgage with me essentially. And the goal will be to pull out some equity into my next deal.
Dylan Silver (06:27)
I want to ask you about the real estate acquisition space in general. That’s the space that I come from as well. I’m a Texas licensed realtor, but before that I got started as a wholesaler, really didn’t know anything about anything. And over time, started to get my first couple of deals working with a company at the time and…went from acquisitions to dispositions, then did a little bit of both, then branched out on my own and started doing deals with JV partners, and then started taking deals from the cradle to the grave from beginning to end. When you were learning all the creative ways that people can make offers and also all the obstacles that come up with these deals, what was your experience like?
Sam (06:52)
Mm.Yeah, so it was definitely a shock coming from, you know, not a real estate background and just like bartending coming in and seeing how much goes into all of it is was definitely like, it was a learning experience for sure. But honestly, that’s kind of what I really love about it is it’s always engaging. Like I have so many stories from, you know, running the acquisition from start to finish.
You know, it’s never boring to be completely honest with you. And you know, I was running front, like taking leads. I’ve done the process from taking a lead to closing the deal myself, like going in person, meeting with sellers. So I’ve like seen it from start to finish. And yeah, it’s definitely been a big learning experience for sure. That taught me a ton. There’s like, there’s so many ins and outs.
with that process that until you really get into it and kind of dive into it, that’s the only way to really learn about it. You can watch as many YouTube videos, read as many books. My biggest suggestion to anyone wanting to get into it is to just start and just learn as you go.
Dylan Silver (08:16)
I share a lot of the same sentiment. One thing that I would add to that for me personally is having someone who may take a majority of the deal, if it’s your first deal or your first couple of deals, but can really walk you through the process, it’s very tricky. And so, especially when you are starting out and you have a deal under contract.Sam (08:30)
Mm-hmm.Yes.
Dylan Silver (08:37)
⁓ You really I can’t speak for everybody, but I really had no clue anything about anything I had no really where to turn to so fortunately I had Company that I was working for that could kind of be the backstop But I think a lot of times when I see folks who are just starting out and winging it. There’s a lot of Risk there, but it works for some people and so my hat goes off to them I want to pivot a bit here Sam and ask you about getting into the textSpace and your company Reba, how did that come about?
Sam (09:09)
Yeah, so essentially, and so the company name is Riva, R-E-E-V-A. Essentially, no, no, no, all good, all good. Before I got into the real estate space, something I was always interested in was tech. So, you when I was bartending, I was going to school for computer science, always had an interest in a Mac, for I loved how, you know, creative you can get with it and how many problems you can solve.Dylan Silver (09:15)
Sorry about that.Sam (10:08)
And once I got into the real estate space, I always knew I wanted to figure out a problem that was in that space and solve it with technology. Because to be honest, real estate tech is extremely dated. It’s like way, way, way in the past. And that was a gap that I saw working every single day. essentially, I built my first product a year ago that didn’t work out.and it was doing real estate analysis for long-term holds for landlords. And it ended up not moving forward for a couple of reasons. We had a really big competitor that was just dominating in that exact solution, ⁓ as well as not a ton of market fit with what we had. So we actually pivoted into Riva, which we’ve a lot of way, much more interest in, a lot more success with.
Dylan Silver (10:46)
Yeah.Sam (10:58)
And, you know,I’m essentially just solving my own problem. And I think with AI, you know, we have a chance to really just save a lot of time, not necessarily like replace people, but equip people in their roles to be able to be 10 times more efficient. And so, you know, that’s my goal with Riva. It’s really just based around real estate analysis, you know, kind of to go off on like what it actually does. Do an acquisition for a company every single day.
I’ve been able to see the problem of real estate underwriting. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to underwrite a deal, especially when you start really getting into it. You’re going to be underwriting it multiple times, manually pulling all the comparable sales, double checking your renovation budgets, figuring out what price you’re going to exit the property at, then estimating how much it’s going to cost to even sell it with an agent, escrow, closing costs, all these little fees.
It takes a lot of time. And in my opinion, that can be solved with a formula and with artificial intelligence. And so we’ve built a platform that does that for you and seconds underwrites it builds a report for you. can look at it, update it, change things you don’t want. And just the goal is just save people a lot of time, a lot of money. Hopefully with AI, it’ll, you know, we’re going to get to the point where it’s, so accurate that, you know, you go into a deal and it can tell you, Hey,
Like this might be a bad deal. Like you’re going to be losing money on this. know, how many times have people gone in on a deal thinking they’re going to exit at this price because they missed this comp and now they’re losing $50,000, you know?
Dylan Silver (12:26)
That’s right. I mean, all the time.Sometimes people just say the first flip is a learning lesson because of how common that is. I have some questions about Reva, but I actually want to take this a different direction. You have an interesting path in hearing your story. So computer science background, right? Bartender had an initial idea that didn’t get off the ground. Now Reva is getting off the ground. I want to ask you about your journey because I think there’s a lot of people who may have really just got a different way at so many
Sam (12:32)
Yeah. ⁓Dylan Silver (12:56)
different points in your journey. You know, maybe at a school bartender they think, okay, I’m not going to go do the computer science thing any longer, but you kept it really in the forefront and now have a tech platform that is really, of course, heavily utilizing your background. Walk me through kind of the resilience involved and then also being able to pivot, right? Because you’ve gone and been able to pivot while still dealing with what I think a lot of young folks are dealing with, which is you kind of get into aSam (13:03)
Mm.Dylan Silver (13:23)
career path and then say, well, hey, you how am going to make a living, right?Sam (13:27)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I would say what’s kind of got me to where I’m at today was like you said, a ton of resilience, a ton of grit. And anytime I saw an opportunity put in front of me, I did not hesitate to just take action. You know, like when I was bartending and getting my degree in computer science, I was like, okay, this is a good path. I could stick this out for another couple of years. And I got this interview with this acquisition company and sitting here, I’m looking at people making.know, hundreds of thousands of dollars and in this space in real estate that I had always wanted to be in. And so when I got an interview and I got offered a job, I just pounced on it. Like no hesitation, just went in full guns. And when I started out, like I was working, I worked every single day, but it’s for months and months. I would work Monday through Friday. I would stay until the office from 9 a.m. to sometimes 8 p.m.
And then on the weekends, I was door knocking, properties that were in default and seeing if sellers, you know, needed help and needed offers. And Saturday morning and Sunday morning, I was doing that all day. And then I was still for the first couple of months to make ends meet bartending Fridays and Saturday nights. So I just went all in.
Dylan Silver (14:24)
Yeah.I wanna ask you about…
the computer science tie-in with real estate. think there’s a, and I wanna highlight this because actually I kind of have a similar path, not a diploma, but I am in a real estate guy, but I’m also actually in a software engineering bootcamp. And I think that they run very parallel. Real estate utilizes a lot of tech, especially now you mentioned kind of the outdated systems. It’s a lot of that. And so people are seeing that and there’s a real need there.
Sam (14:55)
youDylan Silver (15:06)
good adoption and a lot of traction that people are seeing with some of this AI and other tech as well. But you mentioned having your eye on real estate while having the computer science background. Do you see that as being common? And then also, what was it about real estate while you were studying computer science that really drew you to it?Sam (16:10)
Yeah, no, absolutely. Honestly, in terms of someone having interest in software and real estate, it’s not super common to be completely honest. Like working in the real estate space around people in acquisitions, real estate agents, a lot of them don’t fit the typical personalities that someone has in the software industry and vice versa. People in software are usually a lot more analytical.Dylan Silver (16:31)
Right.Sam (16:35)
and people in real estate seem to be a lot more expressive, a lot more personality forward. honestly, truth be told, it’s not super common. it’s something that I think is super powerful to have if you have that interest because you can solve all these problems for these people. And so yeah, it’s not something I see super often. Sorry, what was the second question?Dylan Silver (16:47)
⁓ yeah.Second question is really what drew you into the real estate space? I mean, to your point, there’s a lot of, you have to kind of have the ability, I would say, to withdraw in order to solve some of these complex analytical problems in computer realm, right? But then you have to have the opposite ability. You have to be constantly in front of people in real estate. So what drew you to real estate?
Sam (17:00)
Yeah.Yes, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I had, even when I was in high school, was real estate was something I wanted to get into because of, the power of how you can build wealth through it. You know, I saw it as the ultimate vehicle towards, you know, generational wealth. And I always knew I wanted to get into it. And so when I was studying computer science, you know, I, I enjoyed it.
I’m fairly analytical. enjoy doing that work and solving problems and creating things. It’s kind of like solving a puzzle. And so I enjoyed that, but I saw it as a vehicle for me to get a good salary to eventually invest in real estate. So when I got this opportunity to actually just hop straight into it and learn from the ground up, I just went head first because it was a no-brainer. And so, yeah, I was really just pulled towards, I want multiple properties. I want to be able to take care of my family.
I want freedom, which real estate brings. And I had some friends who were already getting into real estate, had done a couple flips, had bought like a fourplex. And I saw how it was setting up their life and giving them stability, giving them freedom, allowing them to control their own destiny. And it was a brainer. I’ve always wanted to be in this space and just having that extra skill with tech and the interest in software just has.
My opinion is gonna set my future after real estate as well.
Dylan Silver (18:35)
I want to ask you about Riva and maybe the asset classes that work best with Riva or maybe it works across multiple. If I’m looking at single family deals, fix and flips, let’s say, but I’m also looking for deals that might work if I was going to hold on to it maybe as a short-term rental. And then I’m also in the back of my mind looking at one to four unit duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes in the same general area. So let’s say I’m a, which I am,I’m a Texas licensed agent, so I might be looking at properties in Dallas or Fort Worth or just north of that. Can I underwrite all those asset classes using Reba?
Sam (19:13)
Yeah, absolutely. So we’re specializing in single family homes, condos, townhomes, apartments, and then multi-families as well. Our algorithm with comps is really what our baseline is for determining analysis. I spent a lot of time with my technical guys focusing on getting accurate comps. And from there, that’s where the whole tree stems towards, your deal analysis, determining its exit.you know, what price you need to buy it at, you know, of course, mixing with like renovation budgets, what’s what it’s going to cost to sell. So a hundred percent. And we’re really, we’re starting out with like the single family homes, multi-families, you know, condos, townhomes, apartments, but we’re going to be moving into development as well, which, you know, development is growing a lot in the United States. And so we’re going to be building a whole underwriting strategy through our platform. That’s going to help people.
We want to buy property with a lot and build some ADUs. We need help checking the zoning, figuring out the tax and the city laws for this specific property in this specific area as well. So to answer your question in short, yes, you 100 % can use it for those asset classes and we plan on growing into all asset classes, commercial, development, everything.
Dylan Silver (20:26)
Very cool. think it’s conversational too. So if I’m if I’m asking it literally typing in, hey, I’m looking at X, Y, and Z address. I’m trying to this is my exit strategy. Help me underwrite this deal or something similar to that. It’ll it’ll respond back in a conversational manner. Correct.Sam (20:31)
Yeah.Exactly. Yeah. you can, you know, essentially like you have free form for how you want to interact with it. Some very similar to a chat, GBT big difference with chat. GBT it’s not like structured specifically for an investor and an agent. And we have a lot of data on the backend, um, property tax records, everything that, know, essentially fuels our engine, um, along with our own industry knowledge of, you know, how to, you know, the correct underwriting flow, the most efficient way for these investors and agents.
So yeah, it’s super conversational and there’s a lot of guidance as well for users so that if you’re a new investor, new fiction, you don’t know what questions to ask, literally just put in the address of the property that you’re gonna analyze and we have a whole prompt that’ll just rip out comps, renovation budgets, everything for you.
Dylan Silver (21:30)
That’s taken it to another level. I really appreciate what y’all are doing and congrats on where you’re at and I’m sure on the continued success. ⁓ Sam, we are coming up on time here though. Where can folks go if they’d like to learn more about Riva or maybe if they’re in the greater San Diego area and they’d like to reach out to you?Sam (21:48)
Yeah, absolutely. So you can go to our Instagram, getreeva.ai. So that’s about G-E-T-R-E-E-V-A.ai. It’ll have our link to our website in it, know, ton of content. And from there, if you guys wanna sign up, give it a try. We have a promotion going right now for two weeks free completely. So you can try it out for 14 days, see if you like it. And you know, if you do, it’s just 50 bucks a month. You can, you know.Use it as much as you want. I have a live chat bot in there that connects directly to my phone. So any suggestions on the software, any problems you’re having, you can speak directly to me.
Dylan Silver (22:23)
Sam, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.Sam (22:26)
Yeah, I appreciate it Dylan. This was great.
