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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel podcast, host Skyler Byrd interviews Susan Vanderburgh, a remarkable individual who shares her inspiring journey from being born in Vietnam to becoming a successful real estate investor and nonprofit founder. Susan discusses her early life experiences, including her family’s escape from Vietnam, her transition into the real estate industry, and her mission to provide housing for veterans, domestic abuse survivors, and youth aging out of foster care through her nonprofit, the American Society of Community Benefits. The conversation also touches on the challenges of acquiring properties for transitional housing and the growing trend in this niche market.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Susan Vanderburgh (00:00)
we unfortunately got shipwrecked.at one point the pirates took our engine and now we’re just drifting in the ocean
And people were giving up hope,
eventually we got rescued by a Malaysian cruise liner, basically towed to the Malaysian beach.
We were just stranded.
Skyler (00:16)
Yeah.Hey everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host Skyler Byrd and today I am joined by ⁓ Susan Vanderburgh. I’m very, very excited to speak with her because she is doing some good in the world ⁓ investing in ⁓ with a nonprofit and really bringing housing to the less fortunate here. So Susan, again, I’m excited to speak with you and welcome to the podcast. Thanks for coming on.
Susan Vanderburgh (02:14)
Thank you, ⁓ I’m so honored to be on your show.Skyler (02:18)
No, well again, thank you for joining us here. I know everybody’s going to get a lot out of this and you have got, as we were talking before, know, quite a bit of experience here and a very interesting background. ⁓ So before we dive into what you’re doing currently, ⁓ would you mind giving our listeners just a little bit about your background and where you came from and what brought you here?Susan Vanderburgh (02:40)
Okay,I was not born in the United States. I was actually born in Saigon, Vietnam and back then, now it’s I guess the name changed a couple times. At one point it was known as Ho Chi Minh, but I think it might be back to Saigon. I don’t know. Well, I was born into a pretty wealthy family.
So my grandfather, my father’s father, ⁓ had land, he had businesses, all types of assets that you can think of between southern China all the way to Vietnam. And then he was so wealthy, and he had nine kids.
He gave each kid a servant. And I was one of the beneficiaries of that type of luxury. So at the end of the Vietnam War, ⁓ everything was taken from us because it was the communist and it was, you know, they had to take everything. So overnight, all of the luxuries disappeared and I became basically homeless, right? Me, my entire family, all the like 20 people who lived in the home, we were like kicked out. ⁓ We had to go back to
wherever, I mean, wherever everybody came from, that’s where they went back, you know, it could be like a little village or somewhere out away from the home that we knew was home. So my parents decided they were going to take us out of the country. And at the time it was illegally, you know, we were going to escape whatever back then. And my parents ⁓
Skyler (03:51)
Yeah. Wow. Okay.Yeah.
Susan Vanderburgh (04:11)
Anyway, my mother’s mother, my grandmother, saved up enough gold for us to basically flee the country. But she had to stay behind because she had three younger kids. ⁓ so there was enough gold just for me, my father, my mother, two sisters, and an uncle. And we boarded a ship that was supposed to be a fishing boat. And I was told, we’re going on a little trip. I’m ⁓ cool. ⁓Skyler (04:33)
Okay.Susan Vanderburgh (04:38)
little vacation, right? So anyway, was not really vacation because we were leaving the country, ⁓ never planning on really coming back to the country. Andwe unfortunately got shipwrecked. We got robbed by pirates multiple times.
Skyler (04:54)
my god.Wow.
Susan Vanderburgh (05:47)
And we had to be like…stranded basically in the seas before anyone could come say they were rescuing us. So at one point the pirates took our engine and now we’re just drifting in the ocean somewhere.
And people were giving up hope, but there were people who were not giving up hope. were just saying, somebody will come see us and rescue us. So eventually we got rescued by a Malaysian cruise liner, basically towed to the Malaysian beach. And we slept on the beach for about a week, all of us. Sort of like sunbathing, but not really. We were just stranded.
Skyler (06:21)
Wow. Yeah.Susan Vanderburgh (06:27)
And the government, I was about three, three years old. Yep.Skyler (06:27)
And how old were you at this point? ⁓ gee. Yeah, so you really hadno idea what was going on. Yeah.
Susan Vanderburgh (06:34)
Well, I was like, well, I guess I was in for the trip, whatever trip it was. I was just a little kid, but I noticed people were not very happy. ⁓ One guy died because he went overboard. ⁓Skyler (06:40)
Yeah.Susan Vanderburgh (06:52)
There was one kid who was next to me, he got his fingers smashed when the boat was docking. He had his fingers out there and he wasn’t paying attention or didn’t listen when the adults said, put your fingers out there. So he lost his four fingers. And I was next to him too. It was really weird. So we were stranded and we were on the beach. The government did not have any funds to take care of people who just happened to be like towed to their beach.Skyler (06:58)
Okay.Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Susan Vanderburgh (07:22)
Sowe were, ⁓ I guess we were lucky because the Malaysians, they all got
the villagers got together and they put together what they back, what you would now term as a refugee camp. So they put planks on top of planks and just created these like house, like it’s not even a house. So each quarter was basically partitioned by either fishing nets or mosquito nets, you know, the.
Anyway, so
Skyler (07:53)
Yeah.Susan Vanderburgh (07:53)
that’s how we lived. There were like 200, I guess at least 200 of us. And we were stuck there for about 18 months. ⁓ The villagers… ⁓and helped us and we got rations of food. then my mother was a seamstress, Master Taylor. So she made clothing for villagers and refugees and then in return we got food, whatever, rations. And my father was a medic in the Vietnam War so he took care of people’s ailments, whatever they happened to be. And he got cigarettes and whatever else people could pay him. And we survived that way for about 18 months or so. We got…
Skyler (08:27)
Yeah.Susan Vanderburgh (08:32)
We were luckily sponsored by ⁓ an anonymous benefactor, who I later on found out was a relative of ours from France. And he remained anonymous for a very long time. So anyway, first stop was Philadelphia, where we found, well, no, we didn’t find, but this guy found us.Skyler (08:49)
Yeah.Susan Vanderburgh (08:59)
That’s when I found philanthropy, basically. ⁓ He took us to his house, gave us a holiday dinner, and I was like, I thought he was our servant,Skyler (09:00)
There you go. Yep.Susan Vanderburgh (09:10)
he wasn’t. Remember, I was still this delusional little kid. I thought everybody was our servant, even when we moved to… ⁓Skyler (09:10)
No. Yeah. Yeah, you’re three years old. Yeah, of course.Yeah.
Susan Vanderburgh (09:21)
to an apartment building in San Francisco, I thought all of our neighbors were our servants. I was going around each door knocking, you know, like, hey, could you do this for me? And do this and that. I didn’t speak English at the time, so they’reSkyler (09:23)
Mm-hmm.Okay.
Susan Vanderburgh (09:36)
yeah, let’s give this girl whatever she wants. And then one day I asked somebody to take out our garbage or whatever I had. And then the person followed back to my apartment.studio was a studio so like seven of us were crammed in there and He talked to my mother and my mother didn’t speak English either so Whatever it was the the exchange was she’s running around and asking people for stuff. Stop it
So my mother said why are you bothering everybody, you know, I said I thought they were our servants and she said no We don’t have that right here. We don’t have that here, you know
Skyler (10:36)
Yeah.Yeah,
Susan Vanderburgh (10:47)
So thatSkyler (10:47)
big adjustment, yeah.Susan Vanderburgh (10:48)
was our transition from the beginning of life in California or the United States. ⁓Skyler (10:55)
And now,as you got into real estate, as we were talking before, why don’t you tell everybody a little bit about your first jump into real estate and why that happened.
Susan Vanderburgh (10:59)
Mm-hmm.Yeah, you know, I think I just have a knack of bugging people.
We started, it was 1998 when I was like, okay, I want to buy a house. I want to buy a place. I want my own house, but it’s not just for me to live in, but for me to try to make some money, you know, rent it out. So a majority of the realtors I contacted, they didn’t take me seriously.
Skyler (11:12)
That’sSusan Vanderburgh (11:32)
They’re like you don’t have money and I’m like, okay, how do I get money? Well, you need to go get a loan So I’m I’m directed from one lender to another lender just to try to get a loan And of course, I was too young and they just didn’t take me seriously and I just kept getting the run around so then I laid on this one this one realtor really like Threw me over the edge when he yelled at me the next day after I sent him a message on his Back then we had pagers. So I sent a message to him on his pager. He yelled at me. Why?texting me at two in the morning. I’m like, I didn’t expect you to call me back. He didn’t like that. He did not like that, you know. So I said, you know, I’m just going to get my own license and then I can go in and any home whenever, you know, and I’ll just do this myself. So that’s how I got licensed. So 2002 I got licensed and ⁓ then 13 years later I became unlicensed because
Skyler (12:07)
Yeah, yeah, I bet.There you go.
Susan Vanderburgh (12:31)
I was doing a lot of work for a whole bunch of people who said that they were investors, but they were not really investors. They were just wasting my time. And what I did for them was basically I went and checked on each property. Checked on the comps, checked the, you know.Skyler (12:35)
Mm-hmm.Susan Vanderburgh (12:48)
what you need to do to make sure this property is worth, like after you buy it, can flip it, what can you do? So I was running the comps for them, I was running all the numbers, all the repairs, I checked for any kind of leaks, ⁓ anything that can think of that you can do to make it a profitable transaction.And then I was eventually not paid for that, right? And my brokers got upset. I’m like, gosh, everybody’s just upset with me for this. And I’m doing all this work, but I’m not getting paid, right? So he said, why are you doing this? I said, I guess I just want to help. I want to make sure that I can build people’s portfolios. And I did build people’s portfolios, but I wasn’t getting paid for doing that. So I’m just going to build my own portfolio, right? ⁓ I know how to do it. So I did. I started doing that.
Skyler (13:10)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.
Susan Vanderburgh (13:36)
But I didn’t initially buy the tangibles to invest in. Of course, after Bay Area, I was buying notes or backing the notes. And then 2020 was when I started buying more tangibles, including not going to the properties and just making offersSkyler (13:57)
Yeah.Susan Vanderburgh (13:57)
touring.Skyler (13:58)
Yeah,well, I mean, it’s really interesting though, because it’s like, okay, everything you were doing, you know, as a profession kind of led up to giving you the skills that you needed to actually evaluate these multifamily homes and commercial properties. I mean, that sounds like you got into it in the right way. ⁓ It’s definitely, know, investing in commercial properties and multifamily homes is something I looked into, like,
Susan Vanderburgh (14:08)
Yep.Possibly.
Okay.
Skyler (14:26)
justme personally probably ⁓ five, six years ago, but to be honest, I just couldn’t figure it out and know how would ever really be able to evaluate a property and feel confident in it, you know, myself. So ⁓ I think having that background, you know, had to have served you really well for that. And today you have a nonprofit and why don’t you tell everybody about what you’re doing there.
Susan Vanderburgh (14:35)
Yeah.Yes.
Okay, so I’m the founder and CEO of a nonprofit. The name of it is American Society of Community Benefits.
What we do is we provide housing for veterans, domestic abuse survivors, and youth aging out of foster care. So initially we were going to use the nonprofit to purchase real estate and to basically further our mission of providing the housing to the demographics that we cited with the IRS.
But later on I decided, okay, we do have 16 people on our boards between advisory and the general board of directors. But all of us are just so busy. have our own businesses to run. And the mission that we have is huge. You we need a lot more capital. We need a lot more people. And I thought for a nonprofit to try to buy the property to do that, it’s just difficult. It’s just like really difficult.
because we’ll be relying on huge donations and sponsorships and I don’t think I’m that famous to do all of that.
You know, we don’t have a celebrity on our boards to like generate millions of dollars, you know. Now, one day, I hope to meet The Rock one day. He’s been part of my… ⁓
Skyler (16:41)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The rock’s not a part of the board of directors or anything. No? No. All right. Fair enough. There you go.Susan Vanderburgh (16:54)
various campaigns. don’t know if he knows that, but yeah. Hello, Rock. Hello, Dwayne. I hope so. Yeah, come see me in California. Let’s have some tea. Bring your girls. Yeah, we’ll have some fun.Skyler (16:55)
Hey, there you go. Hey, I’m sure he’s listening. Yeah.Absolutely.
Yeah. All right.
And you’re looking at acquiring properties from what I understand across the United States. And is that correct? Or are you focusing just on specific areas in general?
Susan Vanderburgh (17:17)
Yes.Yes.
Well, the reason why I transitioned or changed the thought from ⁓ using the nonprofit to buy real estate, well, there were a couple of reasons. One is that once the property is bought by the nonprofit, it stays within the nonprofit. Even if we were to change hands or, know, later on, the property stays within the nonprofit.
is always a non-profit property. So I thought that would make it very difficult for transitioning the houses or the properties depending on who is the CEO and the next board members.
So I decided, okay, I’m going to have my LLC purchase the properties and then we will have the housing operators operate these homes across the nation, wherever these properties end up being. So as a housing operator trying to get into doing this, it’s very difficult. One reason is that ⁓ a lot of the landlords do not want to rent to tenants to run these types of homes, unfortunately. And then second is I,
We need money, right? We need the capital to buy these properties. And sometimes you need to fix them up or you just have to make sure that they are good enough to house the people, right? So there are certain parameters like ⁓ what I want to look for is at least five bedrooms, two baths, about 2000 square feet, no more than 350,000. So this being like realistic with the numbers.
and we can house no more than two people per room.
because there are certain criteria to meet like overcrowding and you know for health and safety and privacy issues. In California we have that rule which is like 50 to 70 square feet between the beds you know no more than two people per room depending on type of house you’re running and then we have no more than five unrelated people in the house so there’s all those little rules depending on the county as well.
Skyler (19:26)
Yeah, absolutely.And so let me ask you, mean, right now, how are you finding these buildings? Are people reaching out to you that want to operate these type of homes already, or are you actively seeking out people to do that for
Susan Vanderburgh (19:44)
Okay, so I have a huge obsession with real estate. It’s a huge obsession. Like, if you put me in front of computer and I’m on, you know, realtor.com or whatever, any kind of like real estate ⁓ related group, I am looking at property. I could do this like all day, you know, literally from sunrise and like.Skyler (19:47)
Alright, that’s a good thing.Susan Vanderburgh (20:10)
next day. Okay, so I have a problem. have a, that’s like my addiction. So I guess that’s the other reason why I am not a licensed realtor because I would be doing that for free. So I was telling a lot of these people who want to do this with us is that I will not look for property for you. And there’s, there’s a good reason for that. And I explained to them, I wouldn’t be making money if I did that all day long, but I want them to do it. I want them to find the property, tell us what, that they like it, and then we will figure out how to buy it and then rent it out to them.And we wouldn’t have give them a hard time, you know, like, what are you trying to do? Because I already know. I already know what these types of homes are. I already know. So I can trust them to run these homes properly.
Skyler (20:43)
Yeah.Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, nice, nice. And currently, so do you have homes in California and I believe it was Illinois, or do you have any in California right now?
Susan Vanderburgh (21:05)
⁓ Not in California that are operating as transitional housing, no. Because they’re a little bit tough. Basically for the price range. So, 350, we’re in the desert. Where would we be? Let’s see. Somewhere in the desert. So, ⁓ mean, so in California we had to scale up a little bit with the pricing.Skyler (21:17)
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say you’ll be in the middle of nowhere for that in California. That’s for sure.Susan Vanderburgh (21:32)
Because, well, depending on what kind of homes we have, some of the county homes, some of the counties would pay enough where we can, you know, we can purchase a home and make it worthwhile for the operator and for us. So yes, we have in California, I have about three people searching for a home.Yay, I know, exciting. So we’re waiting to see how that goes. Remember, I’m not looking for the homes for them. Yes, they need to. And then, yes, and then I will figure out how to get financing to purchase the homes. And we have like five people in Washington who are looking, about six people in Florida who are looking.
Skyler (22:01)
Yeah, they get it. They get to come to you. Yeah. Learn your lesson. Yeah, absolutely.Okay.
Susan Vanderburgh (22:18)
about three people in Texas, a couple in Illinois. Illinois is a little bit tough because, know, just depending on which part of Illinois, it’s a little bit tough. So I have Northern Illinois, somebody’s, they want me to buy their property because they already have a house in there. And I’m like, well, I need to see who wants to be out there to run this for sure. Yeah, so anyway, he started it, but he didn’t do it right.Skyler (22:39)
Yeah.Yeah, it seems
like a very niche space where you certainly have to know what you’re doing. And I could be wrong about this, but it seems like there’s probably not too many people ⁓ that are out there looking for, you know, in this space. Is that right? Or is it something that kind of grows?
Susan Vanderburgh (22:50)
Mm-hmm. Yes.Well,
believe it or not, it’s becoming a trend. I’m like, no, I need to hurry up.
Skyler (23:08)
Okay.I know, can’t let too many people get in before you’re cemented there.
Susan Vanderburgh (23:15)
my gosh.You know, I mean, I feel like we are still doing what we’re doing differently. We’re still doing it differently than other people
because our LLC is buying the properties and then we’re renting them out to the operators.
And at one point, if the operators want to partner with us, they certainly can. mean, initially it would be like, we will be the tenant, we will be the owner and the landlord, and then they will be the housing operator and the tenant. But we could still do it as like, we’ll carry back the financing and sell it to them, so we can do it that way too. But they have to want to do this, you know. It’s a commitment.
Skyler (23:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they have to want to be apartner and actually run everything and be responsible for that. Understood. All right. Okay. Well, well, Susan, we’re kind of coming up on time here. And I know today flies when you’re having fun. And so before we go here, let me ask you, mean, if somebody wants to get in touch with you and in your company, if they, you know, if they have a property they want to run or anything that way, how can people find you?
Susan Vanderburgh (24:01)
Yes. ⁓Yes.
that was fast. Wow. Of course.
Okay, so the easiest way is just email me. I’m probably gonna get a lot of spam after this. Should I give you the email address? Okay, okay. All right. All right, so I guess this, because this is a podcast that we can all trust others, but it’s fine. I’ll give you guys the email. So the company name is Fairplay Network LLC. So we have FPN.
Skyler (24:35)
You can give me whatever you think works best, it’s social media, email, whatever you’d like. Yeah. ⁓yeah. Okay.
Susan Vanderburgh (24:54)
serviceonline at gmail.com. That’s our general email address. Later on, I mean we do have a URL, fpnserviceonline.com. So go there. But it’s a very generic website. We don’t talk much about what we do because we have not been advertising. Mostly because we don’t really want to advertise.Skyler (25:21)
Yeah, that’sunderstandable. All right. Okay. Well, well, Susan, I really have to thank you for your time today. I mean, you have got an amazing story and amazing background. And again, you’re doing a lot of good out there. So I’m really glad that we got a chance to talk and, yeah, for, for our listeners out there, if, ⁓ if you guys got value from this, or if you want to get in touch with Susan, please, you know, subscribe to the podcast here. We have got more interviews like this kind of coming down the pipe. So.
Susan Vanderburgh (25:23)
YouYeah. Thank you.
Skyler (25:50)
Be on the lookout for those and we’ll see you all the next episode.
