How to Raise $50M+ for Real Estate | Jay Dhahan on NextGen Wealthy

Jay Dhahan (00:00)
people believe what they want to believe in, but at the end of the day, money is always moving. Money is always

Even right now, there’s $18 trillion that is cycling through the system as we

you think the market is up or down, right now is always the right time to move.

Kristen Knapp (01:45)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Jay Dhahan, the founder of NextGen Wealthy. So thank you for being here, Jay. You help people access capital.

Jay Dhahan (01:53)
Thank you for having me.

Yes, absolutely. Especially in this world that we live in, capital is definitely needed when it comes to real estate. So we definitely supply capital on all aspects.

Kristen Knapp (02:00)
Yes.

Yes, you are very needed right now. ⁓ Awesome. So let’s go back to the beginning. What got you interested in real estate in the first place?

Jay Dhahan (02:13)
Yeah,

know, if we want to take it a little bit further back, know, when I was a kid, know, Lego was my favorite toy. And I loved Lego because you’d see this, this amazing picture on the front and then you’d get all these little pieces and then you would put it together. And at the end, it would be something. And I think that led me into my career of development specifically. And I’m actually originally from Canada. So born and raised in Canada, I got in at a very young age, started, you know, self developing myself towards understanding the game of real estate and was able to take a small sizeable portfolio that my dad had done, which was just invasive.

Kristen Knapp (02:18)
you

Jay Dhahan (02:43)
residential properties, know, buying a small little house, tearing it down and building it into a duplex. I took that vision to the next level and started to build commercial retail. So over the last decade, I’ve been focusing on investing and building commercial retail strip malls that’s now led me out here to the States to see how I can 10x that portfolio.

Kristen Knapp (03:04)
and what draws you to commercial.

Jay Dhahan (03:07)
Commercial is just, you know, it goes back to that classic thing that I’ve always shared with people, which is, look, if you’re gonna own real estate, you can own residential or you can own commercial. Now, residential-wise, I could own a couple of houses, some investment properties, but then I may have a tenant that gets angry at his wife and punches a hole in the wall that I’ll have to deal with.

Whereas on the commercial side, my tenants are full-fledged businesses. They’re already spending a couple hundred thousand dollars to fit out their bays. They’re on a five, 10-year lease terms. So there’s a lot more stability in commercial real estate, in my opinion.

Kristen Knapp (03:39)
Yeah, and I’ve heard people talk about how the market is stronger right now for commercial. It’s more promising.

Jay Dhahan (03:46)
Yeah, absolutely. You when you look at businesses, look at corporations, you look at the lease terms, know, one thing that’s really popular right now is data centers because, you know, the way that we work, the way that the world works now is data driven. So having commercial is, I think, more predominantly in favor at the moment just because of the wave of technology as well.

Kristen Knapp (04:07)
Right, and so you’re in the Canadian market and now you’re coming over to the US. What are the differences that you’re seeing?

Jay Dhahan (04:14)
Well, first of all, love you all Americans because you’re just 10x everything 10x the energy 10x the money supply and 10x the population literally. But coming out here about four years ago, you know, I came to visit I just you know, it was during COVID and there’s a lot of ups and downs going on with my businesses up north. And I just came out here to visit for about six months. And once I got here, you know, I was I was in Tampa for a little bit and I was in Miami, I was kind of going back and forth and I was like, Florida is just a whole new type of market. It’s just untapped potential. Yes, the the price

Kristen Knapp (04:18)
You

Jay Dhahan (04:44)
pricing is extremely high, but there’s so much potential because there’s so much money flow and people are willing to invest. They have the courage to invest where sometimes my Canadian, my fellow Canadians are a little bit hesitant to get into those multi-million dollar deals.

So it was quite nice to come out here and see an energy and a vibe of people that are going, oh yeah, I need 10 million, do you need 20 million, do you need 30 million? And it kind of opened my horizon to the possibilities that were actually there.

Kristen Knapp (05:57)
Yeah, and then what led you to founding NextGen? What hole in the market did you see?

Jay Dhahan (06:02)
Yeah, with next gen it was really the origin of next gen was to help people, you know, learn communication so that they could understand neuro performance, which is the brain and the habits that we take in order to find success in life. Now that evolved over the years and ended up, you know, really understanding now more so on just the communication aspect, but how to truly raise capital, how to get into the market as it, as you know, as people are looking for capital for their real estate projects, you know, you’re able to actually learn the lingo, the jargon.

and actually go out there. So I really started with a coaching platform, more of an education platform, and now over the years of being in the States, it’s really allowed me to position myself with a partner company, Bender Carry Capital, that allows us to now supply capital directly to those investors in the range of $50 million all the way up to a billion dollars when it comes to the commercial real estate sector.

Kristen Knapp (06:55)
Wow, so you’re really just helping people have the tools to go out and fundraise for themselves.

Jay Dhahan (07:02)
Absolutely. I really feel communication is a huge part of it. Part of my background is in NLP, neuro-linguistic programming, really understanding the body language and the communication that it takes to not only have a good conversation, but to truly build rapport with somebody and then eventually be able to get the deal closed, raise the capital that you’re looking for for your next project.

Kristen Knapp (07:05)
Yeah.

So what are some common mistakes you see from maybe first time fundraisers?

Jay Dhahan (07:29)
I think a lot of it comes down to just, you know, really…

kind of getting a bit overwhelmed. I see a lot of overwhelm. It’s like, I don’t think I can do it. I don’t know how to do it. You know, how do I raise $10 million? But if you just really go back to the simplicity of it, raising over a million is quite easier than raising under a million. And I know that sounds a little crazy, but it’s true because when you’re dealing with somebody that’s investing over a million dollars, you’re dealing with more of a sophisticated investor that’s really primarily looking for three simple things. A return on the investment, an exit strategy, and knowing exactly the

Kristen Knapp (07:48)
Mm.

Jay Dhahan (08:03)
security of their money, right? If you’re able to answer those three things for the person, the, the sophisticated investor, it’s quite easy to get that money. Whereas in, if you’re dealing with somebody with a quarter million dollars, 250 to 500,000, usually they’re an investor in a position that has saved enough money and is going to kind of watch that like a nest egg, really, really watch and see where their money goes. So I highly recommend to people to kind of get out of that overwhelmed stuck state and just say, look, shoot for the stars. We might just land on the moon.

Kristen Knapp (08:22)
Right.

Yeah, I think that’s really good advice because I think people do get really hung up, especially in the current market. You know, I hear people be like, it’s just a bad year to fundraise. What would you say to people who kind of limit themselves in terms of timing with the year or just timing in general where I hear people say like, don’t fundraise in the summer, don’t fundraise during the holidays? Like, what would be your perspective on that?

Jay Dhahan (08:57)
I think it’s all just misbeliefs, right? Like

people believe what they want to believe in, but at the end of the day, money is always moving. Money is always flowing. In high markets and low markets, there’s always money moving. Even right now, there’s $18 trillion that is cycling through the system as we speak over the next 24 to 36 months. Right now would be the ideal time and whether you think the market is up or down, right now is always the right time to move.

Kristen Knapp (09:21)
Yeah, yeah, and how do people access these investors?

Jay Dhahan (09:26)
Yeah. So networking, you know, I spend a lot of my time going to a lot of networking events, you know, hiring coaches, spending a lot of money into personal development. And what that really taught me was you got to get into the right places. You know, I would always attend these conferences and I would go to these very high end luxury style event venues. And what was so interesting about being at the event venue is yes, I would be there to learn and to sit front row with the guys and take notes from legends like Grant Cardone, Tony Robbins, and all these amazing people. But then I started realizing, well,

If I’m at this resort

and people are spending $1,000 a night to stay here, maybe I switch from the crowd of the ones inside the conference room and I go sit with some of the guys that are sitting at the bar or at the golf course and have a conversation with them. And that kind of quickly led me to understanding, you know, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. So getting around the right people, asking the right questions and being able to really gain the contact and follow up with them is so, so ⁓ vitally important.

Kristen Knapp (10:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, and what are some things you teach people in terms of like you were talking about body language and tonality and all that?

Jay Dhahan (11:06)
Yeah, that gets me a little excited for sure because that is so important. think, you know, even in this conversation right now, 55 % of what we are communicating is through body language. It’s the actions, it’s the eyes, it’s everything that you can physically see. 38 % now is the non-verbals. It’s the tonality, the pitch, the volume, the way that I can actually put character to my voice. And only 7 % is just the words. So most of the time we get very scared and it goes back to that, you know, on the list of fears.

is death is number two, public speaking is number one. So people would rather die than to public speak. And it’s crazy because 7 % is only the words and we’re so scared of saying the wrong thing versus actually creating energy. So when I sit down with people, you know, I use key things like a situational factor.

Kristen Knapp (11:48)
Right.

Jay Dhahan (11:54)
which is a key tech tactic that you can use instead of saying, hey, how are you? How’s your day going? How’s the weather looking? You point at something, something on the screen, ⁓ a football player doing a touchdown, that was a good play. And you create conversation out of energy versus just the actual voice that’s coming out.

Kristen Knapp (12:12)
Oh, I love that. That’s really good advice. And I’ve heard that like showing your palms is really friendly on Zoom, like stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. No, all of that stuff makes a huge difference. I agree. And it is so interesting that it’s such a big fear when, you know, the words are such a small element to it. And what kind of people are you helping at NextGen? Are they usually like first time fundraisers? Are there people who are trying to level up their fundraising? What do you get?

Jay Dhahan (12:20)
Open palm versus closed palm.

So typically with the partnership with Bender Carry Capital, we focus on deals that are usually 50 million plus. So we’re looking at sophisticated investors that are currently either in a process of refinancing a multifamily building, a warehouse, even a commercial retail strip mall, depending on the size frame. However, that being said, one of the things that we just newly introduced inside of Bender Carry Capital is a vertical that allows under $3 million deals. So whether you’re an investor or a homeowner that wants to do a fixed

Kristen Knapp (12:48)
mm-hmm.

Jay Dhahan (13:11)
and flip or single-family rental, any of those things, we now actually have a division specifically associated with those entry level kind of getting into the works of the fix and flips on that million dollar scale.

Kristen Knapp (13:25)
Wow, yeah, talk more about the partnership with the equity company.

Jay Dhahan (13:29)
Yeah, absolutely. I run the vice president of Florida Origination. So really just Deal Flow and helping them establish more territory share. They’ve been around for many years, 20 plus years with over 100 years of combined experience. we got a lot of good people on the team and now we’re just really looking to get wider and wider. We’re about 44 states strong right now that we’re funding in and we want to just expand more to North America as well as overseas.

Kristen Knapp (13:56)
That’s amazing. And you guys are deploying a lot of capital or lot of it. Yeah.

Jay Dhahan (13:59)
Absolutely, there’s a lot of capital available so why not deploy

it to the right people that are looking for it.

Kristen Knapp (14:04)
Yeah, I mean I love that mindset. I love that abundance mindset that there’s always money flowing and to not, because I think a lot of people, especially in fundraising, they answer their own question. They say no to themselves before they even go out there and try.

Jay Dhahan (14:19)
Yeah, absolutely. like even my company NextGen Wealthy, right? A lot of people ask me, Jay, like what does wealth mean to you? And it’s interesting because most people will associate wealth with money, which I do agree, money is a tool. And if not the sharpest tool in your toolbox. However, wealth to me is really more about that abundance. It’s more about the freedom, the choice availability, as well as wealth being allocated towards having the money to do so.

Kristen Knapp (14:47)
Absolutely and talk more about kind of ⁓ you know, know you guys are really Into like modern investing and you’re very educated on crypto and tokenization. Can you just talk about traditional investing versus the modern investing?

Jay Dhahan (15:43)
Yeah, one thing I love about real estate is that if we take real estate 100 years ago, it’s the same way it is now, right? There’s a piece of land, there’s a contract in place, and then there’s ownership, whether exchanges, whether… So it’s been very traditional for over a century now, if not more. And what’s interesting now though, is that with currency changing and digital currency being introduced into the world, and of course we can talk about things like Bitcoin, but just the actual modernization of digital currency, it’s quite interesting to see how tokenization

is working on tangible assets now. Now this is something, you know, five years ago wasn’t possible, but now it is. So looking into the influx of how much capital has gone into the digital currency world, and then being able to leverage that now to purchase buildings, to change up ownership, and alongside that, looking into the massive changeover of hands, which means like the baby boomers retiring and the next generation now being able to kind of come in, it’s gonna be very interesting.

to see the thought pattern as you know the millennial generation is a little bit more instant gratification and want money now however the boomers were like let let’s buy this asset and keep it for 60 70 years so i feel we’re going to see a lot more turnover with a lot of properties and this is a great amazing buying time for those investors that want to get into the right properties at the right time and hold those properties long enough to get the right appreciation from them

Kristen Knapp (16:56)
Right.

Yeah, I’d love for you to talk a little bit more about the current market and just the opportunities.

Jay Dhahan (17:15)
Yeah, absolutely. Again, I love the American market, Florida specifically. We do a lot of deals in Texas as well too. So Texas and Florida have just been really, you know, not only bullish on the level of just the government and the leadership within the states, but overall like the land itself, they’re focusing a lot on the infrastructure and continuously building the resources around. Where I see a lot of mistakes, especially up in Canada, is that they’re not necessarily taking the time to build the right infrastructure. Just putting a high rise in the middle of a town,

doesn’t make it favorable if the roads around it can’t handle it. So really spending the time and effort into the infrastructure, the roads, the other ⁓ necessities around the actual developments is such a key that I’m seeing, especially in markets like Austin, Texas, as well as Tampa, Florida.

Kristen Knapp (18:03)
Yeah, and it really is. mean, there’s always a pocket of a good market, even if it’s doom and gloom all the time. There’s certain assets and certain markets that really are still thriving. So yeah, I hear a lot of doom and gloom all the time, and I like hearing some more positivity about it.

Jay Dhahan (18:23)
Yeah, like the doom and gloom is, it makes sense though because it’s a lot easier to be negative than it is positive. You know, it takes effort and time to be positive. But again, we can always blame external resources. We can always say, I don’t have enough money or the markets are down at the moment. But if we do truly look inward and actually create that abundance mindset that you mentioned earlier, you start to see that, you know what, there is money around. It’s just a matter of what effort am I willing to take each and every single day to get closer to catching it and…

Kristen Knapp (18:28)
Of course.

Jay Dhahan (18:51)
pocketing it or deploying it in the right manner and having the right education and tools in order to do so. Because we all hate a bad investment. I’ve made multiple multiple bad investments in my past of handing you know a couple hundred thousand dollars to an investor and the project fell through. So getting smarter and smarter each time and learning through those mistakes has allowed me that that that real backbone now to know what’s right and what’s wrong and where to position myself correctly in this market.

Kristen Knapp (18:57)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I think that’s important too, because I think a lot of people think that investing, you’re just getting handed a lump sum of money, and it’s just easy. And it’s true that a lot of people, there’s mistakes, there’s stuff that happens. mean, you do have to learn from these mistakes, and you have to be aware that not every deal is going to be the biggest success in the world.

Jay Dhahan (19:39)
Absolutely.

Kristen Knapp (19:40)
And

so just to kind of wrap this up, what would be some advice that you wish that you knew earlier in your career?

Jay Dhahan (19:48)
That’s a good question. ⁓ think just again,

the mindset of 10Xing. You know, this is a big Grant Cardone reference as well too as Mr. 10X himself. But just always thinking larger than what’s possible. See from so many years I was kind of constricted into my own. We started with residential developments. We did end up getting into strip malls and that was still limited within my own geographical area. Until I came out to the States and really was able to see the 10X picture.

you know, hundred million dollar buildings and actually opening up the conversation myself. I think that’s what really allowed me to say, Whoa, okay, there’s a market here. Yes, but it’s a matter of the choices that I make in the conversations that I have. That’s why I’ve been such an advocate for learning communication. You know, we, don’t necessarily, we think of that as such a broad term. Hey, Jay, does that mean public speaking? No, it doesn’t mean public speaking. means knowing how to articulate your language, how to take complex information and simplify it so that the average person can

understand it. That’s how politicians do it, that’s how CEOs and leaders of top companies do it. Just learning the art of communication, especially when it comes to even the body language and the non-verbals, allows you to have such a competitive advantage over most people that don’t think of that as a learning tool in their box.

Kristen Knapp (21:07)
Yeah, and it’s so important because that’s easy stuff to learn. You’re not having to go off and learn like a whole new trade. You’re just learning how to optimize the conversation, optimize the language you’re already speaking. Well, awesome. I think people learned a lot today, so tell people where to find you.

Jay Dhahan (21:21)
Absolutely.

Yeah,

absolutely. you guys can find me on all social medias. We’re very, live. But Instagram is my most popular one as well as LinkedIn. And that’s just my name, J-A-Y-D-H-A-H-A-N. And of course, if you need capital, you’re more than welcome to go to nextgenwealthy.com.

Kristen Knapp (21:42)
Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Jay. And thank you everybody for listening and we will see you back next time.

Jay Dhahan (21:45)
Thank you for having me.