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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Gurshan Bansal, a real estate investor who specializes in syndications. Gurshan shares his journey from single-family investing to raising capital for large-scale apartment syndications. He emphasizes the importance of networking, education, and community support in overcoming challenges and achieving success in real estate investing. Gurshan also offers practical advice for new investors, encouraging them to take action and build relationships within the industry.
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Gurshan Bansal (00:00)
And through all this networking, I met a wholesaler that helped me close my firstI met my property manager who now manages a couple of my section 8 properties. ⁓ I met my Airbnb host to help me stand up my Airbnb’s. I met my current business partner who we now raise money with to do these large-scale operations with. ⁓ And so networking and just meeting people who are at the same place with you and then turning those meetings and those relationships into like brainstorming and mastermind groups was the biggest unlock for me that I
me to scale. It’s not about how you do things, it’s really about who you know and that’s fully in anybody’s control is meeting people and understanding what you can bring to the table.
Michelle Kesil (02:19)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Gurshan Bansal, who is a real estate investor focusing on syndications. So excited to have you here today, Gurshan.Gurshan Bansal (02:38)
Yeah, thank you, Michelle. Really excited to be here and chat with the audience.Michelle Kesil (02:42)
Awesome, let’s dive in. First off, for those who are not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?Gurshan Bansal (02:50)
Yeah, I started off as single family investor, largely buy and hold. ⁓ These are any things from long term rentals to Airbnb. ⁓ Over the years, the market has changed and the interest rates have made single family homes a more challenging game. So over the last couple of years, I’ve shifted into ⁓ raising capital for a large scale apartment syndications. So I’m a general partner ⁓ for KNG Capital.and I work with a lead sponsor, Matanza Capital, to find apartment complexes that we can fix up with the ultimate goal of selling them and paying back our investors a healthy profit.
Michelle Kesil (03:36)
Awesome. In which markets do you operate in?Gurshan Bansal (03:39)
⁓ For the single family, ⁓ I am in Atlanta, in Memphis, in the southeast. For multi-family, ⁓ I am in Lakewood, Ohio, right side of Cleveland. And we’re in St. Charles, Missouri, right out of St. Louis. And our latest deal that we’re going to be raising for is in Kansas City, right outside of Kansas City.Michelle Kesil (04:03)
Great. And so how did you get started as an investor?Gurshan Bansal (04:08)
It’s a great question and it’s something that I remind myself every day of is the why. ⁓ I’ve had a career in tech sales. ⁓ I’ve worked at startups, usually like series A level companies, sometimes series B. I’m oftentimes the first sales hire or first sales leader at these organizations and have had a great opportunity to work with a lot of CEOs and building out the sales motion. ⁓ But there came a point in my life where I thought to myself, what am I really doing formyself and what a kind of legacy in my building for myself. So in 2019, I decided to start looking into real estate investing. I attended a conference that was in my building and that kind of was the initial domino that set everything in place. And since then, I’ve acquired six single family homes and I’ve partnered on three apartment syndicates.
and I’m looking to do my fourth. So I was really just wanting to build something for myself that I could be proud of and that was all mine.
Michelle Kesil (05:19)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome that you were able to build and get to that next level. What would you say are some of the main keys that made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow and to run smoothly?Gurshan Bansal (06:25)
It’s a great question. And the short answer is like, you know, a bunch of hard work. But what I like to speak to people about is what exactly that hard work is. ⁓ The first thing is doing the homework and understanding that a large part of real estate investing is using other people’s money. And so that usually comes from banks. so understanding how a bank operates and how they like to give out loans and how to make yourself more attractive to a bank, how to position yourself withwith
a bank. ⁓ were a couple of podcasts like such as get rich education that I listened to that helped me position myself and a lot of books that I’ve read through bigger pockets that were helpful in that light. ⁓ That was really great to get the fundamental knowledge. It helped me show up to the table being able to speak the vocabulary ⁓ of real estate to others. But for me the thing that moved the needle the most was networking. It was actually going to
events, meeting with people who are two or three or four steps ahead of where I was offering them to buy them coffee, take them out to lunch, just to pick their brain. And at the time, I’d have to dig it up. But I had a series of five or six questions that would ask everybody the same five or six questions, looking for advice. And that became the foundation for me.
And through all this networking, I met a wholesaler that helped me close my first
I met my property manager who now manages a couple of my section 8 properties. ⁓ I met my Airbnb host to help me stand up my Airbnb’s. I met my current business partner who we now raise money with to do these large-scale operations with. ⁓ And so networking and just meeting people who are at the same place with you and then turning those meetings and those relationships into like brainstorming and mastermind groups was the biggest unlock for me that I
me to scale. It’s not about how you do things, it’s really about who you know and that’s fully in anybody’s control is meeting people and understanding what you can bring to the table.
Michelle Kesil (08:38)
Yeah, absolutely. I relationship building is a crucial part of this business. Is there any sort of specific networking strategies that you use, or is it just going to local meetups?Gurshan Bansal (08:50)
Yeah,that’s a great question. ⁓ Initially, what I had done was go on a lot of the BiggerPockets website and ⁓ I would post in the forums about questions that I had about real estate, or I would find interesting threads. And then I would single people out and reach out to them in the messages and say, hey, this is what I do. Here’s what I’m trying to accomplish. I saw that you have done this. I saw that you had posted about this. Would love to pick your brain for 20 and 30 minutes. ⁓ And that was very
I made it a goal of mine to speak to two new people every month for a full year. So I met 24 incredible people during that time and people are so willing to pay back what they’ve done in real estate and the same way that I am if someone asks me about real estate and wants to pick my brain about it. That was a super big unlock for me and I made sure I made it a goal to connect with two people every month. That means I had to send out more than 24
messages. ⁓ But that’s the part of the game is making sure that you’re staying on top of that. ⁓ That was during COVID. So that was kind of limited to that type of interaction. As soon as COVID restricted, I started going to events and meetups in the cities that I was in. ⁓ And not exclusive just to the city that I lived in. Like if I traveled for vacation for a week,
I would search on Eventbrite or Bigger Prockets if there was a like local or like real estate investor meetup just to meet you people.
and to see what they’re doing. If you want to learn how people are doing real estate or how they’re doing deals, talk to them in person about what they’re doing. That will teach you anything faster than reading a book or listening to a podcast. It’s amazing the type of information that you can receive. ⁓ And so that’s what I do now. I have a goal every month to attend two networking events. ⁓ And the way I make it, you know, beneficial for my business is we obviously have a capital syndication business where we
raise money for large apartments. ⁓ And what I will do at these events is I will meet people and I will want to walk away with at least two new email addresses from a business connection standpoint. And I let them know like, I’d like to add you to my newsletter. It basically keeps up with, you know, the deals that we’re doing. We send it out once every eight or nine weeks. ⁓ Are you okay with that? And no one to this day has turned me down on that offer. ⁓ And so like meeting people, talking to them about it,
and then getting them on that email newsletter, that’s been helpful to kind of spread the word ⁓ and expand the reach of our syndication and really bringing deals to people who want to find a way to invest but don’t want to have that active capacity that you would need if you were buying your own single-family home.
Michelle Kesil (12:14)
Yeah, amazing. think that’s super valuable advice. Thank you for sharing that perspective. What are some challenges or obstacles that you’ve overcome as an investor that now looking back you can see the lesson?Gurshan Bansal (12:31)
You know, ⁓ my first deal actually, ⁓ I closed on it on January of 2020. I bought a house in Memphis, Tennessee. I wiped out all my savings to buy this house all cash. And ⁓ I was midway through the rehab process ⁓ and I was…At that time, COVID had just impacted the entire world. And the bank that I was using decided to back out of the refinance deal. So I had this game plan all planned out. I got the property, I bought it, cash, I was rehabbing it. ⁓ I already had a few people lined up in terms of renting it. But now the biggest part of being able to complete this deal was the refines and I didn’t have a bank. ⁓ And for a minute, I panicked.
I mean, this was all the money that I ever saved up for. This is all the research that I had done two years prior that went into this and I was scared and and none of the homework or research that I had done had ever prepared me for this. So the first thing that I did was leaned on my network. I started calling the people that I had spoken to. I picked their brain. I’d gotten ideas and they had guided me to like, hey, why don’t you try finding a small local community bank ⁓ who you can start a relationship
with, explain to what you’re doing, explain to them your plan, ⁓ put together a business case for them, and that’s exactly what I did. ⁓ Ultimately, I was able to find a bank that I have since used on three other transactions because of that first deal and because of the way that I presented myself in the business case, and I only knew how to do that because of the network that I leaned on. ⁓ That was a huge sense of relief, and that gave me lot of confidence that, hey, if I bite off a little bit
more than I chew or that I can chew, I know that there is a network of people who have done this before and I’m not alone. And the way that this investing community is, is people want you to succeed, people want the word to get out there about real estate investing and people will lean in to help you. ⁓ Because if one investor fails, it kind of takes away from the whole allure of real estate investing. And so this community has been able to kind of lift me up through some dark times before.
Michelle Kesil (14:52)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome that you keep coming back to that community aspect of this business. So what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?Gurshan Bansal (15:00)
course.Yeah, I think ⁓ my biggest thing that I am looking to accomplish over this year is really
educating the people that are in my network, in my circle about the power and strength of real estate investing. I have a lot of my community that are invested in stocks and in crypto, and that’s been fairly up and down over the last couple of years. But real estate has really remained quite steady. And so my goal over the next year is to continue to educate as many people that I can meet around the benefits of real estate investing.
just outside of cash flow, right, the benefits of inflation, the benefits of tax pay down, the benefits of loan pay down from your tenants paying it, the benefits of appreciation, and sharing all these benefits with others, and then teaching them different ways that they can get involved in real estate investing outside of just buying their own property as a rental, which is tougher to do in today’s market. I hope that changes. But while that’s the current case, my
goal is to show people that just because things are tight from…
the single family standpoint doesn’t mean there are other ways that you can’t invest in real estate. So that’s what I’m focused on is just putting the word out there, making sure that I help people see what options they have available to actually invest their money outside of the traditional models of stocks, bonds, crypto, 401ks, HSAs, and kind of show them a different world of a tangible asset. That’s something I’m really, really passionate about, something that changed my life and changed the way I
think about money, change the way I think about work, ⁓ and really gave me a stronger purpose to go for. ⁓ And the projects that I have coming up are all around apartment syndications. So learning how to find a great apartment that we can invest in, understanding what makes an asset do so well, and learning different ways to increase the net auto rating income of those assets so that way we can pay back investors the money they’ve invested with us. That’s my
main focus over the next year.
Michelle Kesil (18:05)
Amazing. And so in like that regard, when it comes to, you know, giving people advice on real estate investing, what would you suggest to someone that has never invested yet, maybe thinks that money is an objective and wants to diversify their assets and start this journey?Gurshan Bansal (18:29)
Yeah.You said something really interesting when it comes to like, you know, money being a roadblock into this game. I think the first thing that I would encourage people to do is really understand the concept of money. And it sounds silly, but ⁓ like go back and understand, you know, when the US where I primarily invest in was ⁓ a country that used gold, you know, as its standard and see how that changed and why that changed and how banks started to centralize.
the process of a fiat currency. ⁓ I think when you understand the history of money, it becomes less scary and you understand how it’s used in the economy. So that would be my first suggestion is read about, you know, the psychology of money, the philosophy of money to better understand and be comfortable with that. Because ultimately, if know, money is controlling your thought process and ⁓ how you want to invest, then it makes it really tough to ever move past that into a bigger asset. You can.
but then things get dramatically scarier if things go wrong. understand where the root of that is coming up. ⁓ Then from there, second is don’t try to reinvent the wheel. ⁓
you don’t have to do something that no one has ever done before. Go out there and speak with other investors who are one, two or three steps ahead of you. And you can meet these people anywhere. You can get on Instagram and find them in your community. You can go to your search engine and search for real estate meetups and be really vocal and open of, Hey, I want to get into investing. I haven’t done this before. Here’s what I bring to the table. Here’s what
I
have. I have time. I have skills. Maybe you’re a realtor. Maybe you’re really handy around a house and know how to fix things. Maybe you’re a contractor. Maybe you’re a lender. Whatever your skills are, right? Maybe you’ve been working hard and you saved up a bunch of money or that’s your plan. Whatever your skills are, bring that to the table and then connect with people who have what you don’t have. In this example, maybe the experience and find out how you can partner with people. The biggest deals that I’ve done, I’ve partnered
with other people who have done it before to reduce the risk. So I can’t stress that you don’t have to do this alone. Find your community, find your network and put in the effort to meet people and then the risk will substantially reduce. And lastly, I think my biggest piece of advice and something that I struggled with when I wanted to get into investing, I let myself get in the way by asking myself questions
questions like, do I need an LLC? Do I need a tax guy? Do I need ⁓ to invest from an HSA? Like, how can I do this to maximize, you know, the gains? And while those are all legitimate questions, those are also roadblocks that stop you from getting started. ⁓ Once you do your first deal, those questions get answered a lot easier because you actually have a situation that can be examined by an attorney or a tax professional.
And so don’t let the shiny objects of needing to get everything right in your way before actually doing your first deal. Real estate is a really forgiving game because even if you acquire a property, you still have an asset that holds value and that historically has increased in value year over year over the last hundred years. So you have a lot of risk mitigation in this strategy. And that’s something that I would tell to any new investor.
Michelle Kesil (22:15)
I think that’s such powerful advice and really comes down to taking action and not letting all of the other like things that you think you have to do stop you. Awesome. Well, before we begin to wrap up here, someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more. Where can people find you and connect with you?Gurshan Bansal (22:26)
Sure. Yeah.Yeah, absolutely. The best place to do this is on Instagram. You can reach me at TheRealEstateG. ⁓ And I also have a website, is GurshanBansal.com which will also take you to my website. That’s where I post content on some of my biggest wins, some of the losses that I’ve suffered, some of the stakes that I’ve made, and really just continue to educate my circle and my community about where I’m doing deals and how I’m doing them.
Michelle Kesil (23:07)
Well, I appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. Thank you so much for coming on here. And for the listeners that are tuning into our show, if you got value, make sure that you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Gurshan who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on the next episode.
