How Stephan Fequiere Went from Flips to Commercial Development

Stephan Fequiere (00:00)
This is the least amount of work that I’ve done on a project and it’s the project that I did the best on.

Investors all made a 23 % return on their money.

I don’t get any phone

calls, I don’t have to troubleshoot anything.

I have a project manager on site. I have an admin who handles all the back office. I have a director of operations who makes all the payments and all.

It’s like, it’s a cheat code man, it’s a cheat code

Dylan Silver (00:21)
Amazing.

folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a commercial residential developer from Connecticut, based in Connecticut. Please welcome Stephan Frequiere. Stephan, welcome to the show.

Stephan Fequiere (02:09)
Thank you for having me, man. Excited to be here with you today.

Dylan Silver (02:12)
It’s great to have you. You’re Connecticut by way of Boston. I don’t know too much about Connecticut. Lived in Boston for a time period. What’s the market like in Connecticut these days?

Stephan Fequiere (02:23)
It’s interesting coming from Boston, you

buying a distressed property in that greater Boston area, you’re spinning north of a million dollars. Connecticut is a whole different ballpark. you’re buying, I currently have a 54 unit under agreement right now that we have under for $800,000. And so it’s interesting, there’s a lot more opportunity, the barrier to entry is a lot lower here. And it’s a little slower pace. And so I think if you’re on your P’s and Q’s and you have that hustle,

to you, it’s a lot easier to get into this market than it is in the Boston area.

Dylan Silver (02:57)
want to pivot a bit and ask you about getting into the real estate space in general. I commercial developer, I think how many people would like to be able to start there. But there are steps leading up to that. How did you get into the real estate space?

Stephan Fequiere (03:11)
So 2020, it was home.

you during the pandemic, nothing to do. And, you know, I was watching a lot of Grant Cardone because what else is there to do during the pandemic? And one day I was on Instagram, I was on Instagram, one of my buddies had posted that he had just made, you know, he had just done a flip, you know, successfully sold it. And this is what interest rates were at, nothing. And so I reached out to him, we went to high school together. said, hey man, like, what’s going on here? And he was like, dude, I just made 250 grand. And, you know, he outdid his performance, like he was ecstatic. And so I was like, man, I don’t

Dylan Silver (03:20)
As you do, yeah.

Stephan Fequiere (03:42)
care

what is going on, we need to meet at a coffee shop like today. And so I think within the next 24 hours, I in there at a Starbucks and I was like, yo, what do you do? How do you do it? And he was like, yeah, he explained to me that he flipped the house, you he bought it distressed, renovated and sold it for a profit. And at that point I jumped straight in.

I jumped straight in, there were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I had no idea what a P &S was, had no idea what an LOI was. I did not know anything. All I knew was that my friend bought a house for X amount, put X amount, and sold it and made profit. Within seven days of that, I started posting on Instagram in search of distressed properties in the greater Boston area.

started texting realtors. The amount of people who left me on red on Instagram is insane. And so I was co-calling realtors, agents, developers. I was calling larger guys saying, hey, do you have any deals that you don’t want that I could pick up? I was just everywhere. And finally, after

I’m gonna say about four or five months of me diving into this, my co-workers, mother-in-law’s co-workers, great aunt passed away. I don’t even remember the chain. word got back to me and within, I wanna say like six hours of me finding this out, I was at the house walking through it. And the guy was just like, hey man, for 550, we’ll let this go cash.

I ran no comps, nothing. I walked the property, walked the property. was like, all right, I put an offer in, right? EMD check was due. I had 600 bucks in my bank account. And I was like, all right, man, I’ll give it to you tomorrow, right? I kept pushing and pushing. It’s like, I’ll pay that Friday. Pulled thousand bucks out of my account. And I put my EMD down. Then comes where it’s like, hey, you you need a $50,000 purchase and sales. I said, a $50,000 who? And so I, you know, I did what every grown man does.

who’s in need of $50,000, I called my mother. I said, Ma. I said, hey.

⁓ You know I’m starting this new business where I’m gonna start doing real estate and I I need to brought $50,000 and I don’t know what was going on in this woman’s mind But she said alright, she’s meet me at Eastern Bank And so I met my mother at the bank she you know she gave me the check certified bank check at deposit the the $50,000 and so at this point It was I think was like a three-week close And so I had like another week two weeks to find that you know I think it was another

$90,000. Now again, guys, I had never flipped the house before. I had never done any type of investment. My network, aren’t people any money? And so I start posting on every Facebook group. I start posting on all of the social media, know, investment opportunity, you know, this, that, and the third, I get zero bites.

So week goes by nothing. We’re at the week of closing right? I don’t have a single dime to close on this property I at this point I had already accepted that you know my mother was going to you know I was gonna lose the money I was already looking at second jobs to go do I was gonna work at Stop and Shop part-time so I could pay those who went back her money and finally what my my buddy actually who got me into the flipping connected me one of his Subs who had some money laying around I mean he came in as a partner of the deal

and he just jumped in and and you know by the grace of god man we were able to close in the deal and that was my first flip that’s how we got into it man

Dylan Silver (07:52)
That’s a miracle. Let’s go.

Stephan Fequiere (07:55)
Dude, it was crazy, it was crazy. And so after that, that deal, I didn’t do much work on it. He was the main operator. I was just kind of the, go to Home Depot, grab this guy. I was just there learning. I picked up another deal and then from there I did all right on those two and then I quit my job and I bought six houses within like a 90 day period of it. That was again.

Dylan Silver (08:16)
So

you obviously dove in head first. had by really the skinnier teeth got through that first deal and then walk me through the the closing of that deal. Was it a fix and flip? Did you hold on to that property? And then what would the other deals that you purchased subsequently?

Stephan Fequiere (08:32)
So that was the fix and flip. It was a two family in Everett. We bought it for 550, I believe. We put in, I want to say we put in about $400,000 for about 500 and we ended up selling it. We sold it as two condos, record breaking condos at the time. Highest sold condos in the history of Everett. We sold for close to 1.4. It was like 135, 14 around there. And you know, so that was that, you know, I told you how I had posted on Facebook,

that was looking for on Facebook groups that was looking for money. I connected with another guy. We got together and he actually had a wholesale deal that he wholesaled to me. And so that deal I was able to fund through one of my childhood mentors who was an attorney. And so he had some cash flowing around. He borrowed it to me. You he trusted me. And then so that was a single family fix and flip as well. So it did well though. And then from there, I got re- again, timing here though, this is 2021. Money’s free.

Everybody’s building right nobody anticipated 2022 so I just bought you know six houses back to back to back They were either singles Connor conversions, and there was one ground-up one that I purchased and Unfortunately, man, you know, you know I had a friend whose his father passed away left him, know half a million bucks and so there was just money everywhere money was free at the time and Unfortunately, man, you know 2022 rates doubled and that’s when all my stuff was wrapping up and I took a

When I tell you I took a bath, I took a bath in 2022. And so yeah, that was that.

Dylan Silver (10:37)
I want to ask you about getting into the commercial development space. I’ve heard of this analogy before from a podcast guest who told me, you know, single family is like having a fishing boat and then getting maybe multiple fishing boats, maybe hiring some fishermen to go work for you. But then commercial residential is like owning a cruise ship. And then that’s where you get everything from or maybe a commercial fishing ship. And so

Stephan Fequiere (10:43)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (11:04)
did you get into the the commercial space and what was your thought process going from single family into commercial?

Stephan Fequiere (11:09)
So I think.

You know, I wrote an article about this the other day. I think one of the things crisis and turmoil will do to you is they will put you in a position to do some, you know, some reflecting. And one of the things that I learned about myself is that I am not necessarily the strongest operator. You know, I am, you know, the guy who’s executed the construction, who’s, you know, boots on the ground. That’s not necessarily where I thrive, right? I’ve tried it. I’ve done all right, you know, but just,

My my my you know, natural like gift and talents. They don’t you know, they don’t lie there and so I think as time has kind of gone by I’ve liked you know, I’ve become the guy who puts the team together who raises the capital and who allows you know I put all the right pieces in place you guys execute. I’ll raise the capital You know, I’ll I’ll do the the the gritty work with the city, you know, I’ll go meet with the mayor I’ll go meet with the planning of zone department up. I will put all that together

And you guys go figure it out and so at you probably know this but on a single-family deal There’s not much room to do that

Right. It’s not, it’s not every deal pencils out where you can, you know, hire a builder, ⁓ you know, get the best attorneys, raise the capital, do waterfall splits. And so I recently arrived at the place where I said, Hey man, you know, and on the contrary, you’ll hear a lot of people say that the process on a deal, a single family is the same process as a 30 unit. And so I said, Hey man, why not just implement the same process, the same system on a larger scale project? And so my business model now, what I, what I’ve, you know, shaped everything.

is you know I find the property right locate the property I Find a co-gp someone who has a strong track record You know code you know someone who’s a strong operator someone who’s who’s built the same product something similar multiple times over and over who’s performed well who has great you know who’s done it and I take that person I bring them in on the deal you know I give them hey here’s half of the deal all you have to do is execute right I find You know I find investors raise the capital

I get the right attorneys in place. I put everybody together and so that way it’s like I go to this investor I say hey, you don’t have to raise money because developers are always raising money I’m gonna alleviate you of that pain and I go to these investors and say hey man You’re not necessarily putting your faith in me You’re putting your faith in this individual who has a track record and so their faith is in this guy this guy You know he gets to participate in a project that he didn’t have to raise any capital for you know I found the deal I went to the city I met

with the planning the zoning board. I put everything together. I did the hustle on the front end. It’s like everybody has a person they can trust. And so that’s kind of been the model that I’ve been going off of, right? Leveraging other people’s strengths. I have my strengths that I bring to the table and I know my weaknesses and I just kind of compensate for those.

Dylan Silver (14:41)
connecting the dots, making the problems more manageable and solvable and then solving them. And I think, you know, one of the things that is really a hallmark of a successful real estate operator over time is the ability to pivot. I mean, you talk about going from single family in one area, Boston, right, greater Boston area, Massachusetts, right, to then Connecticut doing commercial development. And I think

Stephan Fequiere (14:44)
Yes, sir.

Dylan Silver (15:05)
A lot of times people will like cling on to one strategy like it’s their their last hope but then often that is what will do them in. I mean you mentioned really having to go and pivot massively and pivot into a different asset class and I think a lot of people are unwilling or or just don’t want to do that for so many different reasons. It’s unfamiliar with them. They already feel like they put in time and expertise into this one

Stephan Fequiere (15:28)
Yep.

Dylan Silver (15:32)
asset class or vertical and they don’t want to venture into something else. And then also too, you have to kind of grapple with, well, this maybe didn’t work out how I thought it would work out. So now can I even trust this other thing when this first thing that I thought was going so well ended up maybe not ending how I would have liked.

Stephan Fequiere (15:48)
Yeah, it’s it’s I think there’s it’s two parts. think number one, in order to be successful, not even just in real estate entrepreneur overall, you need to have the capacity to pivot. Right. The reality is is and if you know most people know about Alex Ramosi, if you watch any of his stuff, things are not going to happen the way you want them to. That’s just the unfortunate reality. You know, you’re at the beginning of your entrepreneurship journey. You know, your goals here. You are not it’s not going to be a point A to point B. You’re going to go A, B,

You’re gonna go through the whole alphabet, but in order to get to that final destination, which I believe is financial freedom, know, ultimately it is financial freedom. You need to have the capacity, the bandwidth and the self-awareness to know, Hey, I’m not good at this or this isn’t working or times are changing or people, know, they, in order to, to, be trusted with X amount of dollars, you need to leverage this part. You need to have the ability to kind of shift and pivot as you see fit.

You’re not gonna work the guys who get left behind or the guys who you know hold and cling on say this is you know This is the only way And I think it’s it’s the ability to pivot and like I mentioned earlier being self-aware Amen, you’re not a good operator. It’s okay. That doesn’t mean that you’re not a great entrepreneur. I Suck as an operator. I know that I understand that that’s fine. That’s fine And I think investors are gonna respect you more if you’re if you’re able to to you know, a friend about that Amen

Dylan Silver (17:05)
you

Stephan Fequiere (17:14)
That’s fun.

Dylan Silver (17:15)
One of the

things that I’ve learned from real estate that I don’t know if I would have learned this from anything else, even as an entrepreneur is truly that it’s great to work hard. And I think there’s a lot of merit to that, but I’ve truly believe, and some people will dispute this. I truly believe it’s better to work smart. I really feel that way. If I could only pick like utter grit and discipline and being able to have absolute control over every aspect of

you know, work ethic and that kind of just never give up attitude versus, hey, I’m going to have some of that, but I’m really gonna understand how to put people in places, how to make the connections, how to leverage my relationships, how to work effectively and work smarter. I’ve shifted now. I’ve gone from what I used to be really growing up, hey, I’m just gonna gut this out, whatever it takes, to now, I’m working smarter.

Stephan Fequiere (18:05)
Man, I just had one of my best performing projects.

It was phenomenal, man. We made a few hundred grand over there.

Investors all made a 23 % return on their money.

Investors got monthly updates on their… If I had to create a template for how to flip a house, this project would be it. And this is the least amount of work I’ve done on a project.

I have a project manager on site. I have an admin who handles all the back office. I have a director of operations who makes all the payments and all.

I don’t get any phone

calls, I don’t have to troubleshoot anything.

This is the least amount of work that I’ve done on a project and it’s the project that I did the best on.

It’s like, it’s a cheat code man, it’s a cheat

Dylan Silver (18:47)
Amazing.

Stephan, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if maybe they have a commercial deal that they’d like you to take a look at in the Connecticut area or if they’d like to reach out to you?

Stephan Fequiere (19:01)
Yeah, Instagram and email are the two best, or LinkedIn. Stephan Fequiere ask Stephan Fequiere on Instagram, Stephan Fequiere on LinkedIn, and then Stephan at FQ-ventures.com via email. I answer fast, I’m always on, so feel free to reach out, we’d love to connect.

Dylan Silver (19:17)
Stephan, thank you for coming on the show here today.

Stephan Fequiere (19:19)
Yeah, awesome. Thanks for having me.