How to Build Passive Income While Working a Full-Time Job

Yosef Lee (00:00)
I I think being in in the middle of the game, as opposed to being a spectator, people I hear a lot of people say, I’ll do real estate once the market comes back or I’ll do I’ll do invest into this and that and when the market gets stabilized. But you will never you’ll always be late in the game if you just wait to see until the market gets stabilized because the players are ready in the game and they’re the ones who is gonna be, you know, taking all that good deals in in in the first place.

Scott Bursey (02:02)
Welcome back to the Investor Fuel Real Estate Show. I’m your host, Scott Bursey, and today we’re joined by Yosef Lee of Syndicro and Partners Capital. Yosef has mastered the art of building a purpose-driven life through intentional lifestyle design and a blend of active and passive income. Pros, you can expect to walk away from this conversation with a blueprint for how to stop chasing deals and start building financial freedom that actually serves your life. Yosef, welcome to the show.

Yosef Lee (02:31)
Hi Scott, thank you very much for having me here. I’m very excited to be here with you.

Scott Bursey (02:35)
It is our pleasure to have you here, Yosef, and to help our listeners get up to speed, please give us the front row seat on how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Yosef Lee (02:46)
So I am an attorney here in New York City by trade. And a few years ago I started questioning and reflecting my life as to what am I gonna do for the rest of my life? Is this the thing that I wanna do? And my conclusion was it was not. I was constantly trading my time for money. So I was questioning what options I have. Fast forward, I stumbled upon an asset class, multifamily.

And it was right around the start of the pandemic in late 2019, early 2020, as as a like a newbie investor joined the groups and started learning, self-studying and educating myself, started doing the deals together with the partners I met at the groups. And I went into different skills of syndications, joint venture real estate deals.

Around 2024, I also got into an interest in business acquisitions. So I went into small business. And then you know, I I started seeing a public market investing as well, like a stocks and ETFs. So years now looking back, it’s been about six years that I started investing. I have been in, you know, like a wet balance of real estate, small business, and public market.

I I think these having all all of this are the good portfolio that could ride through any market cycle.

Scott Bursey (04:17)
Talk about being well rounded. Wow, that is remarkable. And counselor, what really caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to transition away from the traditional grind, if you will, and build a platform focused on choice, option, and true lifestyle design. That’s powerful.

Yosef Lee (04:36)
Thank you. Yeah. Well, to be more honest, I am still a W-2. I’m not fully hundred percent investor, what were which I’m striving to become, but I’m still not there yet. I’m building my I guess I’m still on the journey of building my passive income lifestyle. But being a W-2 still gives me access to extra capitals, right? I spend expense.

But I still save and then I used to invest into the asset class where I don’t have to be while it’s still working. So real estate was one of them, and then business, and then you know, stocks would not. So that I think it was not by my choice to build that kind of portfolio, but I think each time when I always make a choice, I educated myself and trying to pivot, which way I should go. As you know, 2022, 2023, the real estate the real estate market has kind of going slow and down. And that’s when I pivoted and became interested in small business acquisitions. And then that’s where I spent my time and some capital. And then as while as I was doing so, I got into a public market and some cash reservoir I still have for an opportunity.

Scott Bursey (05:57)
Thank you for highlighting that and curious to know, you know, as being a full time attorney, what is your biggest strength in your current portfolio strategy that allows you that lifestyle by design freedom?

Yosef Lee (06:58)
I I think as an attorney, I’m very sensitive about, you know, liabil being not trying not being liable for any liabilities, right? So from the very beginning, normally people would just start investing personally, but from the very beginning, I just formed an LLC. I I did it myself. I formed an one LLC to go into an LP position and formed another LLC to go into a GP position so that I could separate the ownership and operation.

And and it’s from the very beginning it’s been in that way. So all the LP positions, I mean first few deals I did it myself because I I didn’t really think about the liability side of it. But after like a third or fourth deal, all the LP positions I’m going in with my one LLC and all the other GP positions are going I’m going in with the other LLC, which is Syndicro and Partners Capital. That’s my GP GP LLC.

Scott Bursey (07:51)
We’d love to hear your thoughts and what do you see as your biggest internal challenge when scaling these passive income streams?

Yosef Lee (07:59)
So by now I realize past true true passive income only comes from passive investing, meaning if you have to work to to get paid as is active income. So being a GP, I know it is is more sexier, as it sounds sexier. Being an LP is kind of dull and boring. However, if you have to be GP at work to make money, it’s still your active income.

Your freedom lifestyle cannot come from active income. It only comes from making a passive income that surpasses your basic expenses, right? So I try to build the passive side of income really hard, but it’s a lot harder than you think and I think because it only comes from capital, right? Or that that or the system that you already built and leveraging other people’s, which takes time and money to build anyway. So

The pure passive income only comes from the capital that was already there. So as in W-2 to go to that stage, I have to work hard to save and invest it. But in the beginning, I I couldn’t just make passive income because it’s not a lot. So I had to work hard to create active income stream first in real estate. So that from that, the money that I save plus W-2 incomes savings, I started investing as an LP. And that’s the passive income stream that I started growing.

Scott Bursey (09:25)
It’s not easy and it’s clear that you worked very hard. Thank you for being so transparent about that. It’s not not easy at all. Tell us what were some of the biggest bottlenecks that you experienced, you know, as you were grinding through the process?

Yosef Lee (09:42)
I to me the bottleneck is myself. Still being a W-2, which I’m planning to get out at one point. Now during the pandemic, I was able to put a lot more time into real estate investing and business side of my journey. However, now my nine to six is pretty much locked in for the legal works, you know, going to courts and and writing emotions and arguing and things like that, negotiations.

So the amount of time that I could spend on real estate and business is relatively small. And I think that’s my bottleneck, being able to not being able to have enough time to fully engage myself with real estate and business.

Scott Bursey (10:29)
Looking at your educated vision, where do you see the biggest opportunity right now? You know, although time can be constricting for your cash flowing assets, what sort of strategy are you employing to increase that level?

Yosef Lee (10:44)
So I I think the AI came out right on time when I I I like I said I consider myself as being W-2 is my bottleneck. But with the AI, I was able to save a lot of time. I hear people say AI will remove your jobs or your positions. Well I really don’t think so. Maybe the entry level will have a tough time. But like if if you’re into already into a profession, like myself and investing journey, I think the AI would give you work as a great tool to leverage to reduce an amount of time that you spend on to finish certain tasks. So I’ve been playing with Claude and Gemini and ChatGPT and Codex and just trying to learn as much as possible and build a system, which I’m still in the middle of building it, but so far it’s been great. And I’ve already implemented to reduce my time on my legal works as well. So yep, AI I think AI tools will be my biggest opportunities that’s lied ahead of me.

Scott Bursey (11:46)
That is such a huge distinction. And thank you for sharing that with our pros. And Yosef, please give us some perspective on what are you most focused on in the current economic climate and how are you preparing for it?

Yosef Lee (12:34)
Well I I try to check where market is going. I I thought probably late last year the interest rate will come down. It didn’t happen. And early this year I was hoping it didn’t happen. I don’t think it’s gonna happen this year. Now I I’m more convinced that it might go to next year. So real estate market I think it’s still slow as opposed to the years that I was very active on, which is twenty twenty, twenty one and kind of two ish.

But I’m glad that I worked really hard. I went into those two years I went into 17 syndications and it’s like a planting the seed. It’s it’s it’s coming out. For example, last two months ago, we refinanced 130% from one of my joint venture deals, which is 40 units in in in majority. And that deal, you know, it’s hundred and thirty percent. So it’s it’s more than what you put in and then some bonus and it’s still cash flowing. So it’s an amazing deal. That kind of thing, even if real estate market is not good, we’re still taking the fruits from the one the seed that we planted years ago. I I think it’s the beauty of real estate.

Scott Bursey (13:46)
Wow. Congratulations on that.

Yosef Lee (13:48)
Thank you, thank you.

Scott Bursey (13:49)
What is one simple move you’d recommend to stay ahead of the curve in this challenging climate?

Yosef Lee (13:55)
I I think being in in the middle of the game, as opposed to being a spectator, people I hear a lot of people say, I’ll do real estate once the market comes back or I’ll do I’ll do invest into this and that and when the market gets stabilized. But you will never you’ll always be late in the game if you just wait to see until the market gets stabilized because the players are ready in the game and they’re the ones who is gonna be, you know, taking all that good deals in in in the first place. Right. As you coming in, you’re always, always late. So I will say just stay plugged into the game. Constantly do the networking with with the players, go to the community meetings or networking places, see what’s going on, check out the markets and things like that.

Scott Bursey (14:44)
Thank you. And building on that, I’ve gotta ask, what does your professional network look like right now?

Yosef Lee (15:31)
So I’m part of two real estate investors group, MIH Mastermind and Jake and Gino. But also I try to be a part of many different community groups like Korean American Scholarship Foundations and also Korean American Youth Choir of New York. Especially I like to be a part of different types of community groups and different sectors because if you only go to a real estate investor’s network meetings or or meetups then you will only see and meet with them. I mean which is great. I I’m not I don’t have anything against that. But by going to different types of networking groups and community works, you will meet different types of people like somebody who’s in music, somebody who’s in fashion, and they may want to invest with you, right? They may become your investors. So and I actually had a couple of investors I met through like different types of community groups. So I I’m I’m all for it.

Scott Bursey (16:33)
Thank you for sharing the depth of your network there. That was some great insight. And Yosef, we must know if you had to rebuild your portfolio from scratch today with zero capital, but all your current knowledge, what is the first thing you would do to generate cash flow?

Yosef Lee (16:51)
I I I think I’ll still start as an active. I think you would have to first pick the side like you’re gonna start as as an employee or you’re gonna start as an investor directly. I I think you could do both. But myself, I’ll probably start as as an an as a W-2 employee or independent contractor working actively for someone to save some until I s have enough capital to invest. But when I said invest, I’m not talking about millions of dollars. I’m talking about literally something that you could put in as as a like an LP position. And then once I could put in one LP position, then I’ll start probably from W-2 to go try to go into active real estate side being a part of a GP group or trying to look for a deal and bring it to you know investors as a deal finder or underwriter underwriting person in in any way any values I could add to the GP group, I’ll start that way.

Scott Bursey (17:55)
Powerful advice, Yosef. Thank you for that. And is there any words that you can leave with our pros today in regards to that tough balancing act? You know, being an attorney, that W-2 employee, and being more proactive in in the investment arena. What is some advice that you could leave with our pros today on how to handle that?

Yosef Lee (18:19)
I I I I think you should first think about why you’re doing what you’re doing, right? Without that, I think you would easily give up. For entire first year I didn’t have any deals, right? Even after joining these great groups, for years I didn’t have any deal. Like constantly underwriting, constantly networking. Until I hit the first deal, we we did I think about thirty to forty underwritings already. If somebody told me, you’re gonna have a deal at the year end, I I think it would have been easier, but it didn’t no one told me, right? It’s just constantly walking within the tunnel. But I believe in the asset class, multifamily. I believed in why I wanna invest in multifamily, because I wanted to create lifestyle by like my own choice and design. Having that why, and I call it just purpose driven life or purpose driven lifestyle. I think we’ll just make your tip work walking when it’s a tough time.

Scott Bursey (19:19)
Counselor, that was some excellent advice. And for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Yosef Lee (19:30)
Social media. I I try to be active in social media. I’m less active than before, but I used to be like really active. My social media handle is Yosef Your Brosef Y O S E F Y O U R B R O S E F, Facebook, Instagram, and what you call LinkedIn, I’m all there. So just send me a DM or we’ll we’ll get on the call.

Scott Bursey (19:55)
Awesome. Yosef, thank you for joining us today, man.

Yosef Lee (19:58)
Thank you, Scott, for having me. It was a fun time.

Scott Bursey (20:01)
It it was tremendously fun and you added a lot of value to our listeners. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Yosef Lee, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.