How Retail Real Estate Investors Can Find Hidden Market Opportunities Using Data

Lilit Yenokyan (00:00)
⁓ Definitely one thing I would love to share is that no matter the time, no matter what is going in the world, I feel that there are plenty of opportunities for the people who are looking for the right things, for the right signals. And ⁓ I feel that this is one of the more opportunistic times that we’re living, more opportunistic years. ⁓

I want to encourage your audience kind of build to build their toolkit. And they are already amazing since they are listening to you and not to let, you know, small setbacks that seem very big in the moment, dim the light that they have in front of themselves. That is going to look miniscule in five years of retrospect.

Quentin (00:37)
Everyone. Hello. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today. Have another fantastic guest. And I cannot wait for us just to learn the different things that she does, what she’s proficient in. And listen, it’s a rare topics that we can talk about. So I’m not going to even try to nail her down to just one thing. But please know she comes with a ton of experience.

20 years of experience. She’s not a novice. She knows exactly what she’s talking about. And so I am so excited for you all to learn from Miss Lilit. Miss Lilit, how you doing today, ma’am?

Lilit Yenokyan (03:01)
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I’m doing great. ⁓

Quentin (03:04)
no, absolutely. Good, good, good. So glad

you’re here. This is going to be great. Listen, I am the type, I like to dive right in, right? So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in, and then tell them a part of the world you’re in. People love to know where people are geographically. So what you’re up to, your origin story, and where you are.

Lilit Yenokyan (03:13)
That’s it.

Quentin (03:33)
Ma’am, you have the floor. Yes, sir.

Lilit Yenokyan (03:35)
Amazing. Hi everyone.

I am ⁓ Lilit. I am dialing in from San Jose, California, just outside of San Francisco. It’s a bright and sunny day here today. So short about me, I grew up in Armenia, Eastern Europe, and ⁓ about 20 years ago I moved to the States to, actually 20 years ago exactly.

to go to University of Michigan and since then ⁓ to study computer science. I’ve been an engineer at various companies, large and small, moved to product management and engineering leadership. My last role in corporate was engineering director at Roku. And in the meanwhile, I got super interested in ⁓ real estate investing, especially during COVID when I was home and had a little bit more time.

avoiding the commute and looking into alternatives. And ⁓ well, ⁓ just over a year ago, I left my role and I building a company that is empowering, it’s called Investra. And it is empowering retail investors like I was myself and realtors to find their great next opportunity in the market and make that decision.

Quentin (05:43)
I love it. Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing where you are, how you got to the space that you’re in. And as you was talking, I was just writing some things down, actively listening. And so I’m going to do a quick summation. Then I want to make a statement to ask you a question. So I’m living in California, but grew up in Armenia. Came from there to go to University of Michigan. That was about 20 years ago. Engineer, in the engineering field.

and started getting interested in investing during COVID. And so got interested in investing. I believe you said you left your company and kind of like now you kind of are where you are right now, right? Pretty good summation? Yes, yes.

Lilit Yenokyan (06:22)
Yeah, I got so into this, know, I’m kind of right now fully doing my real estate role as a manager of my own assets, looking at new investment opportunities and bringing the way I’m thinking and operating to everyone to leverage.

Quentin (06:25)
Yeah.

Yes.

I love it. love it. So listen, so I have this statement that I make. I say, destiny has no wasted moments, right? Meaning as we go through life, that the journey kind of reinforces the people that we are now. And we learn from our experience, from our loss, from failure, from the success, and it builds the people that we are today, right? So I would love to know.

What has the moments, what has the journey from engineering to real estate, what has it taught you about yourself? Like what are some of the things that the journey has kind of revealed to you? Has it revealed discipline? Has it revealed resourcefulness? Like what are some of the things that come to mind that the journey has taught you about yourself?

Lilit Yenokyan (07:20)
Yes, that’s a very ⁓ interesting and deep topic. I’m glad we’re jumping right in there. ⁓ I’d say that the journey, you know, my experience has been ⁓ definitely not short of failures or not short of challenges that I had to overcome. And ⁓ every challenge that I had to overcome and face taught me more about my own resilience and taught me

Quentin (07:46)
Yes.

Lilit Yenokyan (07:49)
things that ⁓ gave me a toolkit to better address the challenges that come up next. And also taught me how to be the person that others can rely upon when they are faced with similar challenges, know, paying it forward and being there to ⁓ educate, to help ⁓ the next generation of

Quentin (07:56)
Mm.

Lilit Yenokyan (08:15)
be that engineers, female founders, investors, and everyone.

Quentin (08:21)
Yeah, yeah. Listen, thank you so much for answering that question, answering it with so much integrity and honesty. And I love how you talked about the toolkit. And I love asking that specific question. And I know you said it’s a deep question, but sometimes I want people to realize kind of just the different tools that they have been building over the years, right? Like we get to where we are now and.

because we are so natural what we do, sometimes we forget like, hey, how did I get here? Like, how did I get so proficient in this? And so I love how you answer that question. And I love how you are building your toolkit to help others, to make sure that people that can rely on you, you can help those that’s kind of inside your influence. So I absolutely love that. And again, I appreciate you answering that question the way you did. I would love to know what are some of the, let’s say,

strategies or systems that you’ve built over the years that kind of help you kind of thrive the way you are. mean, you’re engineers or obviously you’re brain data driven. So what are some of the systems that you have put in place that’s kind of helping you be successful?

Lilit Yenokyan (10:08)
Yeah, definitely. I’ll start kind of from the systems and processes, right? I mentioned a little bit about resilience. And when I was graduating from college, this was 2008, 2009, and I went to school near Detroit. So that was…

Quentin (10:21)
Yeah.

Lilit Yenokyan (10:34)
a very tough time to get started in career. And ⁓ I heard so many no’s, you know, as I was looking for my first role and international student visa sponsorship, there were so many no’s. And ⁓ even in my first role, there were some kind of, I didn’t meet some organizational signals correctly. And which put me at a disadvantage. And then, you know, just

the toolkit, right? The one I’m referring to is the post-processing. So to say, like you record your video and you post-process it, Yeah. Analyzing like what happened, why the outcome was not what I desired. And then realizing one thing I keep telling myself, and you know, in the, you’re 20 years old, everything seems very big and that it’s the end of the world. But then I’m asking myself like,

Quentin (11:10)
Yes, yes, yes, yep.

Lilit Yenokyan (11:31)
How would Lilit, five years from now, react to this problem? Would it be as devastating or not? And that retrospect definitely helps me analyze the situations in my engineering career and then now in my investing career, because there have been some decisions that I made that I bought a property and then the market went down in that region. And it’s very easy to get into that.

status of despair and be like, my God, you know, I’m never going to find the right tenant. What did I do? But then, you know, looking at the bigger picture of things, right? Being as we discussed, data driven and being like in the grander scheme of things. This is not my only decision. going to, my plan is that in the span of five years, I’m going to make 10 similar decisions. And although this one might not be that skyrocketing return.

My goal is to build a system and a portfolio that if eight out of 10 work out the way I plan, at the end of the day, this is going to fuel my strategy and ⁓ contribute to the right strategy and outcome.

Quentin (12:45)
Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ thank you. No, think that’s brilliant. And I love how you’re thinking kind of in advance, like that innovation kind of thinking forward thinking is more of what I want to say five years, 10 years. And you’re thinking about, how is the decision going to affect me in the future? And like, I’m going to make a ton of these decisions over the years. So just reinforcing the system making, being data driven, make sure the data adds up. And so, no, I love it. I see it. So speaking of the future, what?

is the next goal for you? Like, what are you looking to solve or scale next? What’s next for you, Ms.

Lilit Yenokyan (13:21)
Definitely. So beyond my individual portfolio, what I’m most focused on is my startup, Investra, which is, as I said, powering the retail investor and ⁓ realtor to find great opportunities. And I want to address why I’m doing this for a little bit, because when I first got into this, I realized that ⁓ for somebody who has the generational wealth and connections, these are easy.

Quentin (13:28)
Hmm.

Yes.

Lilit Yenokyan (13:50)
These are very easy because you your dad knows someone, you call them or you have your ⁓ asset class and you call someone and they are there to help you. But if you don’t have many, many millions of dollars to deploy, many of the commercial brokerages or people you would rely upon are not available and not interested for the right reasons, So addressing this and empowering more people who want to get into investing and

want to grow their portfolio and do this by themselves or work with the right residential wheelchairs, give them the tools is the reason I’m doing this. And my vision for the next year or two is to bring this opportunity for more people, to more people, have them lean into using our system and software and increase the size of PI for more folks to get into this.

Quentin (14:43)
Yes.

⁓ you just walked me right into my next question, because I love how you want to empower people. You want to empower more people. So I would love to hear from you. When you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind to you?

Lilit Yenokyan (15:42)
A friendly relationship is something that is long-term, that you build for years to come and for life. It’s not transactional, it’s longevity and trust, right? We build trust, we build relationship and we want to go back to that and cultivate it and see it grow and flourish.

Quentin (16:05)
I’ve always equate relationship with community. That’s what you’re trying to build. And like you said, it’s not just short-term, it’s the long-term. And so community is something that you build that’s sustainable, right? And when community is sustainable, you support each other like this. Like you get nutrients, you get help, support from your community. So I love that. Just not building a transactional relationship, but building a community, people that’s doing things for common unity, right? And so…

Lilit Yenokyan (16:31)
Absolutely.

Quentin (16:34)
⁓ I love it. think that is phenomenal. Thank you for your aspect on relationship. Miss Lillie, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Like, is there any other words of inspiration, education, motivation? Like, maybe you came in here with something on your mind. Like, I want to make sure people understand this. If that’s the case, I kind of want to open up the floor for you to deliver that message.

Lilit Yenokyan (16:59)
⁓ Definitely one thing I would love to share is that no matter the time, no matter what is going in the world, I feel that there are plenty of opportunities for the people who are looking for the right things, for the right signals. And ⁓ I feel that this is one of the more opportunistic times that we’re living, more opportunistic years. ⁓

I want to encourage your audience kind of build to build their toolkit. And they are already amazing since they are listening to you and not to let, you know, small setbacks that seem very big in the moment, dim the light that they have in front of themselves. That is going to look miniscule in five years of retrospect.

Quentin (17:36)
Yeah.

Hmm. You, ⁓ so my wife has a statement where she says, don’t give it five minutes if it’s not going to matter in five years. Like, right? Like, so she’s like, you know, and I, hopefully I quoted that. I hope she, if she’s listening, hope I quoted that, but pretty much just if it’s, it’s given the focus that is need, that is needed, but if it’s something that you know is not going to help you in five years, don’t give it five minutes. Like move to something that is going to be advantageous.

that you can build on, that you can build foundational, that you can build systems, that you can build to really help you in success and in your mindset. And I love the fact that you keep taking it back to toolkits because that’s the one of the things I want people to realize here is that you are at the center of everything you do. Like strategies change, know, things go up, things go down, but you are at the center of everything. So making sure that you’re proficient, knowing what your superpower is, knowing…

what your toolkit is, what value you have will always power you forward no matter what space you’re in. One of my mentors used to say, when you know who you are, you know what to do. So when you know who you are, when you know your skill set, when you know your superpower, you can be put in any situation. You know how to power yourself forward. And so I appreciate you so much for.

Lilit Yenokyan (19:09)
Absolutely. I want to take

it back to the community, right? That we also discussed. It is also very, very important to realize that you’re not alone in this, that you have your coaches, mentors, be those official roles or very, very friendly roles, your friends and people who have gone through that similar journey before that are there to help, advise, and that you can grow with and flourish with.

Quentin (19:39)
Well, that’s the mic drop moment. Yeah, I appreciate you so much. That was good. That’s the mic drop moment. Hey, listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you?

Lilit Yenokyan (19:54)
Absolutely. So I’ll share my email. It’s [email protected] and website for my product is investra-ai.com. So either way, I’m always on email. You can also look me up on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active there. Reach out, happy to connect and collaborate.

Quentin (20:17)
I love it. Well, listen, thank you so much. I want to say three things to you sincerely. So first, thank you for your time. You couldn’t be doing anything in the world, but you gave us your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So thank you. Thank you for giving us your time. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for the gift of your authenticity, for your integrity, or would I even say the gift of your vulnerability. Thank you for sharing things with the listeners. And I believe your story plants seeds in people.

And we may never know when it’s going to grow, but a literary plant sees that’s going to grow over time. So thank you for your story. Lastly, thank you for your way you think. Thank you for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you being on today.

Lilit Yenokyan (21:02)
Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be your guest.

Quentin (21:06)
Absolutely. I appreciate you. Well, listen, y’all heard Ms. Lilit. Listen, her information is in the show notes. So please check her out, get in contact with her. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people, just like my guest today. So thank you so much for coming on again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.