How Ian Djuric Uses AI, Institutional Capital, and Smart Buying to Scale Multifamily Deals

Ian Djuric (00:00)
I think every retail investor no longer uses Google and just uses chat GPT or Claude or whoever and says, tell me about ABC company. Are they good? Can I trust them? Tell me their history, tell me anything about them. And they get a full report and it’s all based on they found on the internet.

Scott Bursey (01:46)
Hi everyone and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey and today I’m joined by someone I’ve really been looking forward to chatting with. Ian Djuric who’s been making some serious moves in the multifamily space. Ian is an operator who has mastered the art of efficiency in the waste management industry before applying those same principles to dominate the multifamily space. Based out of Florida,

He’s now a leader in the family office world, specializing in everything from institutional equity to high yield debt. Ian, welcome to the show.

Ian Djuric (02:20)
Thanks for having me, Scott. I appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (02:22)
I think our audience is really going to take something away from your perspective on how to play the long game with institutional level debt and equity. That’s a total masterclass for anyone looking to scale beyond their first few doors. Ian, let’s dive in, shall we? So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version.

What’s been your main focus here recently?

Ian Djuric (02:48)
Main focus has been launching a new company we have called Quick Gap Funding.

With a lot of people in the space starting to buy again and having opportunities and with retail capital being more of a struggle to come in quickly versus being able to raise $15 million in three weeks, it’s taking more like 90 to 120 days for that type of cash to come in. QuickGap funding to come in, have that loan syndicator sponsors, private equity groups, family offices, money to close in time. So say you have a $7 million raise, you only have $5 million done up by the time you have to close, we’ll loan you the remaining $2

million

dollars for the next 60, 90, 120 days, allowing you the time you need to continue to raise your money while still closing your deal on time. So that way your earnest money isn’t at risk, you keep in graces with the brokers and the buyer, and everyone’s happy. So we’re doing about six or seven of those deals every single month. It’s nationwide and across all CRE asset classes.

Scott Bursey (03:40)
That is fascinating. You love it. What caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to take the operational discipline from the waste management world and translate it perfectly, I must say, into a $2 billion real estate employer. That requires a level of surgical precision, if you will, that most people just haven’t developed in this shifting economic climate. What’s been the unshakable pillar in your system, Ian, that

allows this machine to scale without breaking even when the market gets volatile.

Ian Djuric (04:14)
It’s a couple things. One, it’s doing things right the first time.

We don’t jump in to do things just because, AI is out, let’s do something with AI. Let’s sit down, let’s research, let’s look at three or four different topics, let’s bring in someone that’s professional at it. How can we actually adapt and pivot with that feature? So when we do implement it, it is correct in actually providing value. That’s the biggest thing for us from the trash to any space is being patient, being slow, maybe not making as much money, but being super safe and risk a burst on it.

Scott Bursey (04:46)
Absolutely. And what a winning recipe. Now, every operator I know has a moment where things, you know, got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast, as you were alluding to. Do you mind sharing one of those moments with us?

Ian Djuric (05:50)
Sure, easy.

We take on lot of institutional equity and with institutional equity, they have control rights. So whether or not we think it’s a good time to sell, not sell, pivot, it’s totally up to them. So we are a, we theoretically have a job at the end of the day. It’s the big difference between retail, institutional with retail. Most indicators have full control. You can do what you want to do. Institutional, you’re theoretically working for them, which is fine if you do it to scale. So we had a built-to-rent project with a large institutional

very very large group, I can’t see who it is. And they were taking a rash of heat on a bunch of their other deals in the multifamily space. They weren’t going well. Now this was a build to run project. We started with entitled land. We did all the horizontal development, get everything fixed, turned it into like 144 lots. And then we went ahead and got ready to start vertical construction.

Our main effort group freaked out and wanted an exit, so they forced us to sell the asset off and we ended up returning a…

16, 17 % return instead of a mid 20s. I think we’re trying to be 24, 27. So it’s a matter of stopping, saying, you know what? There’s lots. Let’s find the correct builder who we can sell these lots to and just slow it down. Obviously we try to negotiate, try to go the full speed. But one of the lessons that you learn is when you’re actually in, they want a exit, you exit. during, we still made money. They still made money. Everything’s happy at the end of the day, but it’s a change of pivot and a course for what we’re doing.

Scott Bursey (07:11)
Yeah, and it’s not easy to do, perform under those kind of constraints, pressure if you will, that’s awesome. And that’s the real world grit that usually kind of gets left on the cutting room floor. Most people just want to hear the highlight level, you know, the highlight reel of what’s been happening in their game. But you’re giving us the actual blueprint, something that was right there in the trenches. And honestly, that’s the barrier to entry for the elite.

It’s what separates the weekend hobbyist from the career operators who are still standing in the game a decade from now. Let me ask you this.

What are you most focused to 12 months?

Ian Djuric (07:51)
Couple things, first one being buying right.

I think it’s extremely hard to understand. I’ve been saying this last year and a half. It’s extremely hard to understand the true value of multifamily assets from 1970 to 2005. I think it’s very hard to put a value on those at the moment. We own a lot of 2017 to 2024 assets and those are pretty easy to value interpreting because they’re core class A and they tend to trade it from real numbers. But when you have the older classes, it’s like you go to Houston, you have stuff trading from

$25,000 class D at Hobby Airport to a mile away

C class at $78,000 a door. There’s really not that much difference in the assets. So it’s really trying to ensure that we’re buying at the correct basis. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much work I come in and do, how much I bump a cap rate, how much I save on third party services, no matter how much I think it’s worth, if I bought the right basis, I’m safe. If the world goes wrong, I can hold it for a long period of time at that basis. So that’s our biggest thing is buying right and buying at the right basis.

The other thing we’re focused on is a lot of lot development because there’s are built around because there’s so many pivots. So let’s look at buying land. We buy land, I can entitle it that one increases the value and provides an exit that level.

Two, I’m entitled land, I now can do horizontal development. That allows me to sell them off as lots. So I can sell off to a single family home builder. I can build them off to a BTR builder. I can kind of sell them to whoever I want to sell them to. Or three, I can go ahead and start building the single family homes or townhomes. And then at the end, can either one, if things go terrible, I can sell them off individually, just build to sell. Not that you want to do so, but you can for third eggs opportunity. Four, you go ahead, you build them up, you lease them up and you refinance all

cash out and you hold for exit four or you lease it up and sell it to an institutional company that wants to hold on to it for a long period of time. So you have really five exit opportunities in one cycle on BTR which is we love that so much more than building a self-storage facility, buying a value-added multifamily, a triple net, small bay industrial. We still own all those assets but really focused on the BTR because there’s just so many exit opportunities and pivots depending where the market cycle goes.

Scott Bursey (10:31)
So that’s the short game that adds value to your long game. That’s awesome. And it’s great to have those principles in place. What’s the next real goal for you? The bullseye, if you will.

Ian Djuric (10:42)
Becoming better. So we’re a great size company. We had, I think, six or seven full cycle exits last year for very nice numbers. We had some exits already this year. We have our high Andes Turks and Caicos deal that should return phenomenally going full cycle in June. That was probably our riskiest deal ever. was international Caribbean development. So that’s wild. But our investors trusted us and it went very, very well. But it’s great that we do that, but it’s how can we get better?

So we sit back every year and say, cool, we did A, B, and C great, cool. I could do that every single day. That’s just required. But it’s what can we actually become better at? And we sat down, this pastor said, hey, you know what? We crushed it for institutional investors, but we weren’t really there for our retail investors. So our focus on is really sitting down and diving into how can you provide a better experience for our retail investor. Our institutional investors need 30 minutes a month per asset. So I have a $20 million capital.

rates per an asset that’s 30 minutes a month. That same asset for retail, I probably need seven hours worth of emails and comments and phone calls. So it’s really sitting down and say, Hey, you know what, we’re understaffed as a team to manage all of our hundreds of retail investors. So let’s sit down, hire new staff in, create a better backend system to answer emails more timely fashion, ensure that we’re handling things quicker, and really working on the emotional side of the retail investor, because most people aren’t

as educated don’t understand market cycles have had a wild mix of experiences the last three years of some people crushing it and getting 100 or two three x returns in a year and a half and other people losing for deals because they invested with an operator multifamily that bought 1970s bridge debt

So not hate in 1970s British debt. We still have that. But it’s just a matter of people who had a wild experience. And then how do we deal with the emotions? It’s how do we be empathetic to them being nervous and worried? Not just you’re fine. It’s okay. Just relax. We’re at 92 % occupied. We are cash flowing. It’s great. Chill. But you can’t say that to retail investor. You have to say, Hey, you know what, like, we actually have really strong economics. Here’s a copy of our monthly report shows that we’re cash flowing at five and a half percent that’s in our projections and try and treat them sufficiently.

sophisticatedly but like an eighth grade educational level versus like a collegiate or a sophisticated investor level. So it’s how we provide that better experience and learning to adapt from institution to retail.

Scott Bursey (12:57)
That internal auditing process is so pivotal. That’s huge, especially when you already have the infrastructure in place. The next move now is where the leverage really lives. It can either perfect your operation or detonate your workflow, depending on the strategy that you deploy. Interested to know if you were starting over today with, let’s say 50 K in 10 years of experience, but zero

portfolio. What’s the first lead gen channel you’d turn on?

Ian Djuric (13:28)
So just to clarify, I have no portfolio, I have 50K, and I want to go create leads for investors or for buying deals. am I lead channel for?

Scott Bursey (13:37)
For investors, primarily, utilizing what now is at your fingertips rather than back when you first started. If there is something that you would do different, or what would you attack, your plan of attack in that respect?

Ian Djuric (14:34)
My plan of attack for getting investors is going to be a two-pronged approach. One, you just have to go crazy with your own social media. People have to believe in who they’re investing in. Because it’s cool, the deal’s great, the IRR’s what it is, but they have to be able to trust you enough to give you their cash that first time without knowing you.

biggest things we’ll spend part of that money on shooting on sites every day or just shooting and shooting and shooting and producing phenomenal content, hopping a bunch of podcasts or a YouTube channel. I don’t have a YouTube channel, but we should have one. And then really focusing on…

meeting higher level people. So we will focus on meeting more of that 250 to $1 million investor versus a 50k to 100k investor. Just because that deal cycle is going to be.

And a 52, sorry, from a 250 to $1 million investor, that’s like a two touch, hey, here’s who we are. What we do, send everything over, they do the research, you hop back on, they ask really in-depth, detailed questions on your deal, you answer them either the way they want to hear them, or they say, hey, you know what, this is too risky for me, I don’t like it, or I want something different in the back end. But they still learn to respect you, they learn what you buy, how you buy, what you do. Versus on the 50 to 100K side, it’s usually a four or five conversation. It tends to be more safe.

sales,

like you have to actually try and sell a smaller level retail customer. And it’s not what we enjoy doing. We want you to come in, we want to set our time building trust and report and then letting the deal speak and doing the economics for itself. As well as our background, obviously in this situation, I have a background, but we want to try and build that. So really focusing on that, cause it allows us to spend our time. If you have a $10 million raise and you have 50 K, you can’t afford to take in 60, 50 K checks. Just not going to happen. You have to

go taking some bigger checks. Obviously Family Office isn’t going to give you anything with no background, but you can still target those $250k to $1 checks.

Scott Bursey (16:23)
Hey, great point. Let me ask you this. Would AI play a role in your strategy?

Ian Djuric (16:28)
Yes, because so much.

I think every retail investor no longer uses Google and just uses chat GPT or Claude or whoever and says, tell me about ABC company. Are they good? Can I trust them? Tell me their history, tell me anything about them. And they get a full report and it’s all based on they found on the internet.

So we would spend a ton of time developing the correct SEO that is focused on the AI algorithm software. So it pulls up as positive.

versus whatever we can find on the internet. So that would be our goal at AI.

Scott Bursey (16:55)
Absolutely.

Yeah. What’s your opinion on from when you first started, when you first entered the industry to now with the AI world? What’s your sentiments?

Ian Djuric (17:05)
It’s amazing. We’re taking it very slowly. So I think everybody in the bigger shops would love to just go lay off 25 analysts and have one guy run 10 AI chat bots. Can you do that instantaneously? No. Are some people doing it? Absolutely. So we’ve been doing a lot of strategy and working with a lot of other groups and just…

Like for example, like I know a lot of the other CEOs out there, like Keith Wasserman from Gellin, California manages a couple of billion dollars. Zach Happenstahl from Rise 48, couple of billion dollars out in Phoenix. Telling these other bigger operators, how are you guys actually implementing? What is working? What is not? Here’s what we’re struggling with. But then like I built a website on Claude yesterday in like 12 minutes and it’s great.

Literally, it’s great. Say that’s like $20,000. We’re obviously gonna somebody come in for a couple thousand dollars and touch it up a little bit. But the core stuff is done in 12 minutes on Cloud. And if you actually spend time with your underwriting analyst team, instead of having to have…

An analyst for car washes, self storage, built to rent, multifamily and have these huge teams. I think you really can have one person per team and have variety of AI agents. And you’re having to teach chat or cloud or cloud code. Your underwriting models and take time to say, this is exactly what we look for, how we look for it. You have to go in and audit and like mess with your thing, but it can do a lot of your backend data and should work for you. Cause it’s going to rip everything from Excel sheets, place the right thing. And you probably can speed your process from underwriting a deal in two hours.

to 12 minutes and then really spending a deeper, it’s never gonna take away the deeper dive that you’re doing in.

Can it go research budget comps for us can pull market surveys and market rents and all that kind of stuff. Sure, but it doesn’t know your vendors doesn’t know your true costs that you can try and upload these things over time. But I think give it two years or a year and from now, and you just keep feeding it and feeding it and feeding your data like here’s our average cost to turn a unit. Here’s your average cost to renovate A, B, C, D, F, then it’s gonna automatically be able to fully pull your sheet and

I think it’s just your speed and not need as massive a team anymore and be able to have a better, more efficient experience. But to be seen.

Scott Bursey (19:05)
What a contrast,

yes, since you entered the industry. How things have evolved, Ian. Now, I know a lot of our audiences either earlier in their journey are looking to level up, and I think they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s been the biggest difference for you?

Ian Djuric (19:25)
providing value for free.

which is something that most people don’t do. Most people are like, I don’t wanna take that call, it doesn’t provide value, I don’t get anything of it, do you wanna talk to me, I’ll charge you a bunch of money. I’ve provided so much value for you and I still do. I take too many calls, which is my own thing, but especially when you’re trying to grow, it’s providing value, it’s hey, I can come and do this for you, hey, I found this deal that works for us, but it can work for you guys, know what you need.

If I talk to a family office, it has money to spend, but like they’re just not in our niche, not in our network. Most people just don’t want to share that information regardless because they’re greedy, even if they can’t use it. I’ll literally call somebody else up in that specific series. He’s like, Hey, you know what? Had a great call with his family office. Do you have anything in the specific thing? I know you guys do that. Cool. Send it over to me. I’m going to share it with them directly. If they like it, I’m just going to connect you guys. And so we’ve gotten two or $3 million investments from these family office have introduced and we’re not asking for a Koji peace spot. We’re not.

asking for a kickback, we’re just making that intro like, hey, have a great time with it. And some of those things have really come back full cycle for us and it’s been amazing.

Scott Bursey (20:26)
I can imagine it has been and you can’t fake that. At this level of the game, proximity is power. The math of the deal only gets you so far. It’s the depth of your connections that you just alluded to. That determines who actually gets to the closing table down the road 15, 20 years. And obviously that’s your focus. 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?

Ian Djuric (20:58)
Instagram DMs are probably the easiest. it’s my email, but it’s just IanDjuric at gmail. Sorry, just IanDjuric on Instagram and then at [email protected] for an email.

Scott Bursey (21:09)
Well, perfect. Listen, I appreciate your time in your story and definitely your perspective. I love what you’re doing. We need more people in this space. it’s been our pleasure. It’s been our distinct pleasure. And quite frankly, we need more people with your approach in this space. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We have.

Ian Djuric (21:17)
I appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (21:31)
more conversations coming up with operators just like Ian who are out there building real dynamic businesses. We’ll see you in the next episode everybody.