How This Investor Built 40+ Properties with Hard Money Lending

Kristen Knapp (01:31)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen Knapp and I’m here with Pouyan Broukhim. He’s a hard money lender and real estate investor. So we’re going to get into two sides of the coin here. I’m very excited. Thank you for being here.

Pouyan Broukjhim (01:42)
Thank you for having me.

Kristen Knapp (01:43)
Of course, so let’s get into just your background. What led you up to this point where you are today?

Pouyan Broukjhim (01:49)
Well, I got started in a hard money business about 17, 18 years ago. I was a small guy. started getting investors to invest in my hard money loans. Grew, grew, grew. Eventually had some money and I started investing in distressed assets, acquired multi-family homes and single-family fix and flips in the great state of California. I grew my portfolio to about 40 multi-family

family properties right now. All of them acquired through distress, either bank owned short sales, even foreclosed on a couple of people, properties, just grew, grew, grew, grew. And then I started investing in Utah. I acquired mobile home parks. I’m doing fix and flips over there too. So, you know, I have my hands in hard money lending. I have my hands in not fix and flips. I do multifamily and I do mobile home parks.

you

Kristen Knapp (02:49)
You’re

doing a lot. It seems like a lot on your plate. And when did you?

Pouyan Broukjhim (02:53)
I’m lucky I a privilege.

you know, it’s always about growth and building my portfolio and, you know, looking to expand on what I’m able to do and what God-given gifts have been given.

Kristen Knapp (03:06)
Yeah, exactly. And when did you make that transition? Well, not transition, because I know you’re still doing both. But when did you add on the investing part of it? What made you explore that?

Pouyan Broukjhim (03:16)
When I had the capital to be able to do it, know the being in the business that I am I get a lot of opportunities a lot of people see that I have access to capital they approach me with transactions and When I saw something that was good enough. I I took advantage of it and you know in the beginning there was a lot of Nerves that I needed to deal with and

things that I felt like I could not do. There was a lot of hesitation. I overcame a lot of that and I was able to succeed. And once I did the first project, I’m like, hey, I can do this. I started investing in other projects. I had more capital and I did more projects. the financing was available. In the beginning, one of the hardest things was financing, not private financing, but actual conventional financing and bank loans.

Made some relationship the bank said hey, you know, we see what you’re doing here. You’re doing great We want to support you and they gave me capital to do some of that stuff. They They refinanced a lot of my transaction. I had a lot of business Close to about 20 million dollars with loans with First Republic before they went down. They were a great Avenue But after they went down, you know, I built some other relationship everybody that sees my schedule real estate They’re like, hey, you’re somebody

that

knows what they’re doing. We want to support you. We believe in what you’re doing. The cost of capital unfortunately is a lot higher because the whole rate environment is very high currently. But you have to adjust to the markets.

Kristen Knapp (04:44)
Yeah, can you talk

more about that, the fluctuating interest rates right now and maybe some uncertainty?

Pouyan Broukjhim (04:50)
Unfortunately, rates are higher, but they were so low for so long that we’re kind of paying for it right now. There’s a lot of stimulus that was given out and all quantitative easing and whatnot.

put us as a country in this situation where the Fed has had to keep rates higher. I personally don’t believe the rate is gonna be reduced. A lot of people are hopeful that rates are gonna be reduced, but inflation is still ongoing and…

the job market is still very strong. So those are things that lead the Fed to keep rates higher. Luckily, they’re not going to take it any higher. They’re talking about bringing it down a quarter percent to half a percent down by the end of the year. That would hopefully give a boost to the real estate market. Unfortunately, the market currently is in limbo.

you know people are hoping for the best but the for somebody like me it’s actually a good environment because I have the ability to acquire properties at a discount where there’s a lot of uncertainty so it’s uncertainty is actually a positive for now my lending side but more as an investor side

Kristen Knapp (06:53)
Yeah, I can

see how that could be beneficial and that’s a really optimistic way to look at it and I like that perspective. And when you were talking about getting started in real estate investing and kind of overcoming this fear or maybe self-doubt you had, how did you overcome that?

Pouyan Broukjhim (07:01)
Thank you.

You don’t think about it. You know, if you sit there and do well on all the things that you can’t do, then you’re never going to be able to do anything in life. You know, you got to be like, all right, I’m in this situation. How can I make the best out of the situation I’m in? And either I’m going to take steps forward and achieve my goals and have goals to achieve, or otherwise I can just sit there and just like, what did I get myself into? And just dump on myself and think, wow, this is horrible situation. You can’t think about it.

You got to think about the positives of whatever situation you are in to be able to succeed. If you keep thinking about what has happened or what transpired in the past or what you weren’t able to do, those are limitations and you’re putting those limitations on yourself and you can’t live life like that personally or business or whatnot. You got to be like, all right, whatever mistakes or happened in the past happened in the past. I got to look forward to how I can overcome my challenge that I’m in right now to try to get to the next step.

get to that next goal and it doesn’t need to be leaps and bounds. It has to be baby steps. know, that’s how I did it. I took baby steps where when I look behind me to see how long, how far I’ve gone, I saw that I’ve gone far, you know, but it’s all started with baby steps. You got to progress. You got to believe in yourself and be able to confidently take the next step. Even though you might make some mistakes. I mean, don’t be scared of that. You got to be able to push

and believe in what you’re doing.

Kristen Knapp (08:40)
Absolutely, and I think that’s a good advice to take things slow and small and not have this expectation of just, you know, huge growth from the beginning. I think that that’s more, it’s more realistic to go a little bit slower.

Pouyan Broukjhim (08:54)
Absolutely, I mean whoever thinks that and you get into real estate and you’re gonna Make millions of dollars immediately that that’s an unrealistic expectation Yeah, you can get lucky and you could do well, but that’s one in a million chance. You know what I mean? You got to take things slowly, you know have a goal, you know, you got to have a Idea of what you want to achieve, you know, you got to be able to hit base as they say can’t hit a home run every time right?

I’m happy if I’m going to the bat and hitting singles and doubles every day because that at the end of the day translates into a lot of achievement a lot of goals, know And I’m not trying to bat a hundred percent. I’m trying to bat 30 40 percent. That’ll get me far in life

Kristen Knapp (09:37)
I think that’s

really great advice, really, really great advice, and especially someone like you who has a gigantic portfolio and is diversifying in a lot of different avenues. You don’t build that overnight.

Pouyan Broukjhim (09:48)
Absolutely not it takes a lot of hard work for me a lot of team people that have built around me you know, I hold a Brokers license, but at the same time I don’t make offers for myself I have agents that bring me deals that eat off of what the things that I’m able to do because I’m not trying to

Nickel and diming every single aspect and trying to have my hand in every aspect No, this is a team everything that I do from

the hard money business that I do to the real estate management every day like

It’s a complete team effort. I’m not alone in this. There’s a lot of people around me that are credited with my achievements and their achievements. They make money. Everybody has to make money. If there’s an equation where I’m the only person benefiting, I’m the only person making money, that’s not a positive equation. Everybody has to win in a transaction, from a seller, buyer, borrower, every aspect.

selling stuff. There has to be other people benefiting. It’s a team effort for all this to be able to work and be prosperous for everybody involved.

Kristen Knapp (11:32)
completely and what does your team look like?

Pouyan Broukjhim (11:35)
I have a bunch of processors in my office that are for the loans. We have boots on the ground kind of thing. We have lenders where they make money. need borrowers.

that have a value in our product and see that that loan is yes it might be costly but at the end of the day it benefits them or gets them a situation or they could acquire property at a significant discount which they make money on. In the real estate aspect I have property managers, have leasing agents, have handyman, contractors, oh there’s so many people that have to be overseen currently

working about four different ADUs. I’m doing a bunch of rehab projects. So these are not a one man project. There needs to be people doing the actual work. I might be writing the checks, but I need to have communication skills. I need to be able to talk to people. I need to be able to delegate. All these are major factors in every single aspect of all the operations that I run.

Kristen Knapp (12:46)
Yeah, I that makes a lot of sense. have to have a really good team. And sometimes it’s, I mean, the hardest part is hiring great people.

Pouyan Broukjhim (12:53)
You know, I believe in giving everybody a chance, you know, and then if they try to screw me over or they try to not play within what I’m looking for, you know, yeah, I lose, but it doesn’t deter me. You know, I give the next person a chance. There’s a lot of people that do want to do work and there’s a lot of people that just want to take advantage of you. know, yes, you get burned, then they, once you find a good teammate, right,

and then you work with them, you help them grow, you understand that they have some deficiencies that they need to overcome and you work with them to achieve those goals and make them better and teach them in the field that they’re in to improve their overall situation.

Kristen Knapp (13:41)
It seems like

you really have like a growth mindset, abundance mindset. It seems like you’re really, you know, looking for that positive, optimistic point of view.

Pouyan Broukjhim (13:51)
I try. mean, that’s been my success right now, like the key to my success. I’m hoping to be able to expand on that, you know, as much as possible. Like I said, it’s not a one-man team. It requires a lot of people to do what I’m doing right now. If I try to do everything myself, it’ll probably cost me a lot more than what I want.

to give so yeah I want to have a life you know what I mean I want to I want to be able to have my family go on vacations enjoy my family you know do lunch breaks with my friends kind of thing you know and take advantage of as many opportunities in life and work

Kristen Knapp (14:16)
Absolutely.

Well, I

mean, that’s what it’s all about, is creating life for yourself that is worth living and not working all day. And I think being able to know when to do stuff yourself and when to outsource is a really, it’s a delicate balance for sure, but I think it’s a really important part of the job.

Pouyan Broukjhim (14:49)
Absolutely and everybody that wants to be in real estate or mortgages or what whichever you need to create that you know you have to live in and whatnot

Kristen Knapp (14:59)
Yeah.

And then so on the lending side, what are some of the most common questions you get? What can we answer for people that you get a lot?

Pouyan Broukjhim (15:08)
currently, in this particular market because of rates the way they are

people are looking to get second

because they don’t want to touch that first mortgage rate that they have that’s probably in the 2 to 3 % range. They’re looking to get the cash out to be able to either sustain their life currently or invest in other opportunities. So we’re getting a lot of questions about second mortgages or if somebody is in default, they want to know what we can do to help them get out of default.

preserve the asset they have. Unfortunately, somebody who is in default, you might be able to give them a band-aid loan, a temporary transaction to bring them current on their first mortgage, but eventually they need to be a realist that maybe they can’t afford this property and they need to sell the property and take that equity that they preserve or they have in that particular property and start all over. You know, if your back is a

against the wall, there’s nothing wrong with starting over with something. It’s a lot worse when you don’t have anything and you have to start over. A lot of people don’t quite understand that. when they get into default, they just don’t have any positive aspect towards life or…

they don’t think they have any venues. They lose hope in a sense. And a lot of people need to be cognitive of their families and that equity that they have that they can have something. For example, let’s say somebody has a million dollar property. They come to us, they have like a $500,000 loan. They’re delinquent on it. We give them $100,000 to bring that loan.

But at the end of the day, they can lose that property to us, right? And they have $400,000 in equity. If they were to sell that property and pay us off, that’s a lot of money, for example, to be able to start all over and, you know, rent a place, start investing again. And yeah, they don’t need to own another million dollar property, but they can get into like a $300,000, $400,000 property.

and rebuild again. know the good thing about real estate is if you buy something right now even if it’s overpriced in five to ten years whatever you pay overpriced for today is gonna be worth a lot more than five to ten years. That’s the good thing about real estate. So you can start over. You can believe in what you’re doing. You can…

you have a positive aspect to have self-growth and produce for yourself.

Kristen Knapp (18:36)
I think that’s really good advice. you know, growth doesn’t always mean more properties or going up in value. It can feel kind of like a lateral move or even feeling like you’re starting over, but it can still have a lot of benefits and make a lot of progress for you.

Pouyan Broukjhim (18:52)
Absolutely, absolutely. You just have to have a positive attitude. When your back is against the wall, look towards your exit. See how you can exit out of that situation and create an opportunity for yourself.

Kristen Knapp (19:06)
Yeah, so

your job is really to kind of analyze the situation people are in and creatively find a solution that fits their means, really.

Pouyan Broukjhim (19:16)
Absolutely, we try to give them venue but at the end of the day they make the decision for themselves. We can give them a loan, can give them a band-aid loan, but if they don’t want to take advantage of that and just let things deter again, yeah, they’re gonna be back in the same situation. Once we give them that loan, they need to be active about their future plans and what they can do to remedy their situation, start all over and just look for an opportunity to

better their own life.

Kristen Knapp (19:48)
Yeah, I mean,

I think this is all great advice. mean, we’ve gotten into a lot on this podcast in just a short time with lending and investing and all of that. So, you you’ve said you have over 40, yeah, 40 properties and you have mobile homes and you have the lending business and you have all of this. What’s next for you?

Pouyan Broukjhim (20:10)
I thought about getting into creating a fund and raising capital to do bigger projects because I’m getting the opportunity to see those kinds of deals and I have more confidence in myself at the same time and I get a lot of people that come and say, hey, I want to invest with you. I want to like what you’re doing and I have the track record. I just don’t know if I want to be responsible for other people’s money quite yet.

But that’s something that I am looking into and that’s a possibility.

Kristen Knapp (20:45)
Yeah, that would be awesome.

That would be a great next evolution.

but thank you so much for being here today and where can people find you?

Pouyan Broukjhim (20:52)
You can go to my website, it’s called calhardmoney.com. Calhardmoney.com. My email is poyan, P-O-U-Y-A-N, at calhardmoney.com. You can email me. Our direct office line is 323-935-5555. If anybody has any questions about lending or real estate and wanna pick my brain,

more than happy to help people. know, if somebody wants to join our team, I’m always looking for good people to work with. And yeah, you know, we’re trying to do as much as we can with what we have.

Kristen Knapp (21:26)
Awesome.

Well, everybody please take advantage of that. That’s amazing. You got the phone number, the email address, everything. So please check that out. And yes, again, thank you so much for being here today, Pouyan.

Pouyan Broukjhim (21:37)
Thank

you very much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Kristen Knapp (21:39)
Yes, and if

you love this podcast, please subscribe and I will see everybody next time. Thank you so much.

Pouyan Broukjhim (21:45)
Thank