How Real Estate Investors Can Sell Access, Not Just Deals | Capital Raising Strategy

Salvatore Buscemi (00:00)
I think being able to sell a deal today, you have to sell access and you have to sell a story. Because today there’s too many multifamilies. They’re not really trading at any impressive markdowns that I can see. We don’t invest in multifamily. ⁓ But I think if you’re able to put something together where you’re ⁓

where your investors feel as though they’re valued, they would love that.

Q Edmonds (01:54)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I am excited to be here today. Y’all know if I’m not excited, you’ll kind of can hear it in the way I intro, but it’s not gonna be too many times I’m not excited because what excites me the most is getting to learn from new people, getting to see business through their lens. But today I’m particularly excited because me and this gentleman, we’ve been in contact. We’ve been setting this up.

We’ve had to adjust our schedules a little bit and we just had great conversation coming on. And so I’m excited because I know this is going to be a podcast that you guys are really, really going to enjoy. And so I’m going to let him tell you all the wonderful things that he’s involved in. Hopefully I can get a little bit of origin story out of him. And so I want to take this time to introduce you all to Mr. Buscemi, Mr. Sal, how are you doing today, sir?

Salvatore Buscemi (02:40)
Mm-hmm.

It’s pleasure and a privilege. you. If conversation and banter before this is any, you know, direction, it’s going to be a fun time. So I can’t wait.

Q Edmonds (02:54)
Yeah, I wish

you. I wish I could agree more. And so listen, man, ⁓ I like to use the time wisely. So I want us to dive in. I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. Like I said, if you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to the space where you are. We love origin stories, And then tell them who you are in the world, man. People love to know where people are geographically. So what you’re doing, origin story, and where you are. Mr. Sal, sir, you have the story. Yes, sir.

Salvatore Buscemi (03:07)
Mm-hmm, sure. ⁓

Sure. Yeah.

Yeah.

That’s fine. Thank

you so much. I appreciate that. I am in sunny Miami, Florida. It’s going to start to get hotter as time goes on. ⁓ you know, we’re and you know, I love it here. I don’t really travel that much because everybody comes to me, right? Everybody from Chicago, everybody from New York, especially during the winter months. There’s so many conferences that come down here. So these are relationships that I’ve known or built since leaving Goldman Sachs at 29. I went out and raised

I lost my father suddenly at 24 and I promised myself I would do something ⁓ aggressive and I raised $30 million for Medley Capital, which was a Park Avenue investment firm. Fast forward, I did the same thing out West during the 2008 mortgage crisis. Sorry, 2011, we were buying other things after the mortgage crisis. And then I got outbid on real estate and I had to some money back. I write about this in my book, Investing Legacy. I’m to tell everybody, your listeners, how they can get a free copy of that ⁓ afterwards.

which is something you don’t want to miss. But I also think too that coming into it, I was able to get into and meet partners and be involved in things that I would never get involved into because I was always seen as like a real estate guy. But when I started getting outbid in like 2011, 2012, 13, we had a pivot and we pivoted, we started doing venture and we had a couple of exits and then Lyft came and then Airbnb came. then now we’ve done 10 rounds in the SpaceX and done I think three in the Stripe.

⁓ and some other names too that have received investments from ⁓ the gold standard of institutions, meaning the Saudi PIF, which is great. We’re very happy about that. In real estate, ⁓ we did our first, I love Class A Industrial. Class A Industrial flex in Texas is where it’s at. And we just did our first deal in about five years there. ⁓ Very high performing asset. We like it. We have one in Las Vegas too, which we really appreciate.

We keep things moving here. There’s going to be a lull, think, right now. You and I are going to talk about it as we go into the summer months. Things tend to slow down a little bit. People travel, right? And so we’re going to be working hard up until probably until like June, June 4, 5, something like that. And after that, we’ll see what happens. But in the meantime, it’s great. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people. Again, my origin story is also available on audiobook.

too, Investing Legacy, How the Point 001 % Invest. I don’t have any codes for that, but I will give people a free autographed copy of my book later on after we go through this. So I hope that was enough of an origin story. How’d I do? Yeah, Professor? OK. Good. OK.

Q Edmonds (06:34)
Yeah.

no, absolutely. Absolutely. That was a great origin

story. mean, you really even gave us some vulnerable facts within the origin story. And I value stories so much. I have a point probably, it’s probably at this point of the conversation, I always try to peek into the person that I’m talking to a little bit, right? And so as you was talking, I was writing things down and I’m actually, ⁓

Salvatore Buscemi (06:52)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Q Edmonds (07:08)
You know, I don’t know if you know, if you heard of the book, The Body Keeps the Score. And so I listened to my body when I started to get emotional and feeling tingly. And I’m actually getting a little emotional because, you know, thinking about how, you know, you lost your dad at 24. Of course, gets me emotional. I’m writing a book with my dad about his life. My wife has lost her dad and I had to help her kind of navigate that. So I know that’s why I said thank you for that gift of vulnerability. You didn’t have to share that point, but you did.

Salvatore Buscemi (07:20)
Yeah, yeah. yeah.

Q Edmonds (07:34)
Um, but then you said you want to do something bold, man. So I believe it was 20 million that you said you raised and, you know, respect on that. That’s right. 30 million. Yes. Um, came from Goldman Sachs. Um, you know, people was outfitting you in real estate in 2012 and 2013. got your audio book and that’s the investing legacy. I, I, I, I take these things for a reason, right? Mrs. Sal.

Salvatore Buscemi (07:34)
Mm-hmm.

30 million, yeah, 30 million is 29. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Okay.

Q Edmonds (08:02)
Because I

have a saying where say destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning no matter what you’ve been through in life, destiny has a way to prepare you for where you are now. And we borrow from these moments. This is why we have our passion now, our drive, our mindsets. So destiny has no wasted moments. It builds up to the moments of where we are now. So I would love Ms. Estelle for you to tell me what has destiny, what is this journey in real estate in life?

Salvatore Buscemi (08:24)
Okay.

Q Edmonds (08:31)
taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, resilience, humility? What has it taught you?

Salvatore Buscemi (08:35)
Yeah,

it’s a who I mean, I’ll just put it to you real quick. ⁓ It’s taught me a lot of humility, but you get a lot further in life when you bury the ego. That sounds like a book. I haven’t read it. But when you do that, things come to you much faster. ⁓ And I think, you know, you got to be known as a person who’s, you know, takes a tremendous amount of leadership to do what I do. And that that leadership not in the way of like what you see corporate America, but just being out there going to conferences.

you know, hosting friends, you know, meeting with investors, not weekly, but probably, you know, like, at least weekly, you know, maybe, you know, once a month, I’m going to try to pull that back a little bit for dietary reasons. However, ⁓ you know, it teaches you, you have to be a people person. And, you know, the AI has changed today where there was a lot of guys who were able to raise money using spreadsheets, spreadsheets, you know, like fashion, the models.

purpose in finance is to exaggerate the lie, right? And it’s you know, both in fashion and finance. you know, these people who, you know, you got to go out there and talk to people. You got to be a people interactivity is the new currency today. It really is. And attention is the new oil. And if you’re not capturing any of that, you’re not going to go anywhere because what’s the second rule of real estate? I’ll tell you, always be raising capital. Always be raising. First one’s location, location, location. Second one, always be raising capital.

Q Edmonds (10:34)
you said so many great things and I thank you for it. You know, I love talking to people like you on this show because those that’s listening, I always want to not necessarily challenge their mindset, just help them understand a healthy mindset is everything within the space. That’s true. Especially if you’re an entrepreneur and you brought up the word leadership and you brought up the word ego. Like you have to have a healthy mindset when you’re dealing with leadership and dealing with your own ego. And I love…

Salvatore Buscemi (10:50)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Q Edmonds (11:02)
how you so eloquently said, probably, this is what I synthesized from what you said. bury the ego. That’s exactly what you said. I wrote that down. But that, makes me think about somebody that’s self-aware versus self-confident. When somebody is a self, when they’re self-aware, they are, they know themself, but also in the relationship with others. And they try to protect themselves and also protect relationship with everybody else. When you self-centered,

Salvatore Buscemi (11:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Q Edmonds (11:29)
You know yourself and your steam roll over everybody. Cause I’ve got self-confidence. I know who I am, but when I’m self-aware, I take inventory on myself in capacity of my relationship with everyone else. And so I love that. And I also wrote down how you say interactivity. I love that too, because I do believe relationship, well not I believe, but relationship has a 55 38 7 rule. 55 % is body language. 38 % is your tone.

Salvatore Buscemi (11:32)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s

Mm-hmm.

Q Edmonds (11:58)
And 7 % is actually the words that you say. So when you talk about interacting with people, that healthy point of communication is so key in the way we interact with people. So you just said a lot that just really just set off alarm bells in my head and really parallels what we talked about on the show.

Salvatore Buscemi (11:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Thank

I love that. No, I’m glad I was able to do that for you.

Q Edmonds (12:18)
Yeah, no, absolutely, man. So I would love to know, because of course, every business person that I talk to, business owner, business operator, runs into adversity some type of way. So I would love to know, how does adversity look in your world? Like, how has adversity shown its head and what have you done to overcome it?

Salvatore Buscemi (12:38)
adversity comes in many different shapes and forms, but I think it’s, you know, as it relates to the deal making, you know, we, you have to ask people to part with their savings and that could be humbling if you’ve never raised capital before, ⁓ to ask people to part with their life savings. It’s the highest order of sales going back to Solomon, right? Think about it. ⁓ and you are, you are, yeah, you are, you know, influencing someone to do this. And I think that there could be a lot of.

Q Edmonds (12:59)
Hmm.

Salvatore Buscemi (13:06)
setbacks and adversity when people say no to you a lot. But if you just take it and you sit and you study and there’s many sales training, I listen to these podcasts to myself, but you know, I never I never want to say I know everything, there’s always a new way to learn, you know, something else to learn where can actually help you. And, you know, you got to, you know, you got to know that it’s a relationship name game, but it’s also a numbers game. And you know, the adversity is, you know, going to be

how many investors, if you talk to 10 investors and two invest, that’s great, but you wanna move that forward a little more. Does that make sense? And then, and the adversity is, there’s been deals that have blown, we had one deal that blew up about right during the pandemic and there’s nothing we could do about it, but you have to be able and be the person and say, Q, I have a problem, here’s the solution, right? And that comes in and that’s not a…

Q Edmonds (13:43)
Yeah, absolutely.

Salvatore Buscemi (14:03)
great conversation anybody wants to have by any stretch of the imagination. However, ⁓ that is adversity when it comes into it. I think a lot of people face adversity because they don’t know what they’re doing at first. And they think a nurse is bliss and they’re going to learn it going through the whole way. ⁓ you can’t microwave a startup. there’s only so much friends and family money you can have before that till is out. So you got to really buckle down and create your own destiny rather than adversity.

Q Edmonds (14:22)
you

Yeah, yeah, I love it, man. Again, you say so many things that just spark my mind and so many things that are so good. And I love how you put Solomon into the conversation. people, y’all did some research on Solomon, very, very wise man who people literally brought gold and fortune to just to seek his counsel. And so when he talks about, you you partner away with some of your life savings, but it’s for the wisdom that you’re going to get, the consultant that you’re going to

Salvatore Buscemi (14:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Q Edmonds (15:02)
And I do believe Mr. Sal and what his business is doing is worth the wait and go. It’s worth you investing in the wisdom that they have so that you can continue to be successful. So I love the fact that you put Solomon in there. I love it. I love it. Let me ask you this. What is the next little goal for you guys? Like, what are you looking to solve a scale then?

Salvatore Buscemi (15:17)
You got it.

⁓

gosh, think that to us, it’s like we have the, you know, we’re a family office of 13 bona fide families, and then we have smaller investors too, a few of them. All wealthy, all have exits for operating companies that throw off cashflow and they invest in our stuff. We’re gonna look to see how we can scale this a little more. I think that’s really what’s gonna happen is that there’s gonna be, you know, we’re just gonna have to scale it. ⁓ you know, I have plans for that too, but it also means leveraging technology more. ⁓

You know, it’s things like that. I, you know, as I said before, interactive activities, new currency, I mean, I send out emails and you know, I, you know, it’s one hell of a day on Q. It’s if you don’t open my emails, you know, and you’re an investor, like what, what, are you doing? Really? I mean, you can’t treat like the junk drawer, you know, I want your attention because it allows me to put more opportunities in front of them. Right. So.

Q Edmonds (16:12)
Yes sir.

Salvatore Buscemi (16:14)
Works out well that way.

Q Edmonds (16:19)
I want to say a word to you and I would love to get your perspective on it. Your perspective, right? Word relationship. When you hear that word, Mrs. Sal, what comes to mind?

Salvatore Buscemi (16:21)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ I think a relationship is, first of all, I think they’re more valuable today than ever because we’re a loneliness epidemic since the pandemic, I feel as though. Again, this is me talking. But relationship really is anything else is an agreed upon set of promises, right? Whether that’s a romantic relationship or a business relationship. But I also think that like, ⁓ to put it out, it’s…

Q Edmonds (16:47)
Hmm.

Salvatore Buscemi (16:57)
I also feel the same way. like people today need to build their own personal brand. And what is a brand? Brands not a logo that nobody’s going to remember. know, a brand is not you putting up another page on Facebook or LinkedIn that’s going to have two followers. ⁓ A brand is your promise. And that’s how you build relationships. Right? Donald Trump has a brand. You don’t know what he’s going to say or bomb next, but you know what? Same thing as Howard Stern was, you know, his brand was I hate him, but I don’t know what he’s going to say next. So I don’t want to shut up the radio.

Even in the most, on the extreme side of that, everybody somehow has a personal brand. And if you don’t have one, you’re gonna be forgotten about. the people who, I mean, I hate to say this, but like people who always, and we don’t do this, but people who come to me asking for jobs because they’ve been living in a hole for the past 12 years, it’s not, they don’t have a personal brand. So I have to start over from scratch trying to tell the world what it is that they do, what they stand for.

Q Edmonds (17:52)
Man, you got so much stuff I’m writing down, bro. When you say, so what am I? Listen, it’s funny. I know, Gallup strength finders, right? You do Gallup strength finders on yourself. I’m not sure if you heard of it. And one of my strengths is that I archive information. And so I love archiving information so I can apply it to my life. And so one, I guess, said that your brand is your character, right? And I love how you said your brand is your promise. ⁓

Salvatore Buscemi (17:55)
Use the note taker! Use the note taker!

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Very cool.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (18:22)
it’s a fitness coach, his name is Coach Lynch. He said, if you lie to yourself, you truly have nobody else you can trust, right? So I think your brain, yeah, the brain starts with you. What’s the truth and the promise that you’re keeping to yourself? Because you ain’t keeping the word to yourself. You ain’t gonna keep your word to nobody else. And then I love how a relationship is agreed upon, is agreed upon set of promises. Never heard that before. I think, cause you’re right, cause by the, it’s romantic. But I think about me and my wife, like,

Salvatore Buscemi (18:30)
True, yeah.

Q Edmonds (18:52)
is how good is my promise that I made to my wife and how much can she trust that and relate to that? So I mean, man, you’re saying some amazing things that I really, really appreciate. ⁓ Absolutely, Mrs. Sal. Let me ask you this. Is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to bring up, or is there any other word of inspiration, education, motivation? Like, if you came in here with something that you felt like our viewers to absolutely know,

Salvatore Buscemi (19:01)
Thank you.

Q Edmonds (19:19)
I’m going to make sure we get a chance to talk about that. So I kind of just want to open up the floor to you,

Salvatore Buscemi (19:24)
I think I’m going to assume that a lot of the people listening to this are real estate investors. Is that correct to say? OK. So yeah, OK. OK.

Q Edmonds (19:29)
the real estate professional, definitely have you on real estate investor. Sure. Yeah.

Salvatore Buscemi (19:34)
I think being able to sell a deal today, you have to sell access and you have to sell a story. Because today there’s too many multifamilies. They’re not really trading at any impressive markdowns that I can see. We don’t invest in multifamily. ⁓ But I think if you’re able to put something together where you’re ⁓

where your investors feel as though they’re valued, they would love that.

And they would very, they want to be a part of something. They want to sit in the front seat with you. Don’t put them in the back or the trunk, right? These are investors. So you’re married to them, right? You are married to them. You might not share a bed, but you’re married to them, right? And so, you know, there’s other promises that you need to fulfill with that. I think a lot of people, they got to start talking about the storytelling and selling access.

Really, it’s really what it comes down to.

Q Edmonds (20:25)
Yes, sir. I’m so glad you said it. The storytelling, the assets. told you from jump, I put a premium on stories. think before Kobe Bryant passed away, he was on a podcast with Louis Howes called… Yeah. Come on. He…

Salvatore Buscemi (20:32)
Yep. yeah.

He had his own media company. He was on his own. He had his own media company. Yeah. Yeah.

He was very prolific. Yeah. He was.

Q Edmonds (20:46)
You want it sir. Lewis Howells asked him, what have you, what have you, what do you still want to do that you have not done yet? Colby said, tell the perfect story. He says, nothing in this world moves without story. Everything has a story attached to it. The glasses we wear has a detachment to it. And so I love the fact that you talk about selling a story. I love the fact that you talk about selling a brand and the promise, like bringing all those things into the conversation. Cause it all matters. The person I’ve,

Salvatore Buscemi (21:01)
Nothing, Yup.

Q Edmonds (21:15)
This is what I say, Sal. I tell the business owner, the one key component at the heart of your business is you. The money may fluctuate, strategies may change, but when it comes down to it, you are the key person in your business. And so what story are you telling? What’s the promise? The usual words, what are the promise you keep it to yourself so you can make sure you keep the promise to everybody else? so, ⁓ Sal, I appreciate you, man. I knew this was going be a great part. And so you really.

Salvatore Buscemi (21:23)
Yes.

Yes, it’s

I’m here for you. I’m here for

you, my friend. Yeah. Am I allowed to drop the how to get the free book yet or not? Okay.

Q Edmonds (21:46)
So listen, you wanted me, I

was going to say, I want you to tell the people that want to get in contact with you, collaborate with you, find you, tell them how they can get in contact.

Salvatore Buscemi (21:55)
Yeah.

You can follow me on honestly on LinkedIn, Salvatore Buscemi. I think it’s a black and white photo of me. ⁓ But also if you want a free copy of the book, I pay for the postage. ⁓ It is just send an email with your mailing address, with your mailing address to ⁓ [email protected]. [email protected]. I’ll also onboard you to our family office too. So you could sort of see a more intimate look. If they’re friends of you Q, then I have no problems.

Integrating them, of course and you know, we’re available that way our deal book is kind of full going forward I know what people are thinking so, you know, we we have to cram down a few deals first before July, know before you late I say mid-june, you know and then you know, so we got to cram that off and then we’re back in the We’ll be back again in the driver’s seat probably towards the end of August and you’re going into late

Q Edmonds (22:51)
So, ⁓ sir, let me say three things to you sincerely. One, thank you for your time. Time is our most precious commodity, man. So thank you for giving us for your time. Two, thank you for your story. Thank you for the gift of your transparency and vulnerability. Thank you for planting seeds that’s literally going to course correct people’s lives. So thank you for your story. Lastly, man, thank you for the way you think, your mindset, and bringing that mindset to this platform. I appreciate you, sir.

Salvatore Buscemi (22:55)
Sure, yes. Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

I appreciate you too. This has been great. Thank you for putting up with me. I appreciate it. All complaints, [email protected]. What did he say? I appreciate you too.

Q Edmonds (23:26)
I’m about to blow them up now, now. I appreciate this.

so listen, y’all heard Sal. Listen, y’all heard him. You know you got value from this. So please check the show notes, get in contact with him, get the book, get the free autograph. Definitely connect with him, but definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Sal. So sir, thank you again. Thank you so much. That’s moving my friend. Hey listen, rest of y’all, y’all have a great day.

Salvatore Buscemi (23:33)
my god.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

I appreciate it. Quentin, thank you so much, my friend. Thank you.