Invest Smarter with AI: Jeff Emalaba’s Vision to End Blind Property Investing

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, Kristen interviews Jeff Emalaba, founder of InvestFusion, an AI-powered platform designed to help real estate investors make informed decisions quickly. Jeff shares his journey into real estate investing, the challenges he faced, and how InvestFusion addresses these issues by providing critical data points and insights that prevent blind investments. The conversation explores the unique features of InvestFusion, its potential impact on the real estate market, and the future of investment technology.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Jeff Emalaba’s Website
    • Jeff Emalaba’s Phone Number: 470-278-4768
    • Jeff Emalaba’s Email Address: [email protected]

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Jeff Emalaba (00:00)
  Some years back the line, I lost over $10,000. And I said, this is a loophole. I have to stop this loophole. How do I mean? Imagine buying a car. You go to the dealership and then you see a car.

  The car is beautiful, the paint is beautiful, the tires, everything is clean. And they tell you before you can go in and test drive this car, you have to pay a non-refundable fee. That means if you pay that fee and the car doesn’t even have an engine because you’re not even going under the hood, you’re out, you’ve lost your funds. That’s how investors, that’s the journey of every real estate investor in the US. We buy real estate blindly. We go to listing sites. All we see is the price. We see the car parts. We see the square footage. We see the broker to call.

  No one tells you the true health condition of the property.

  Kristen (02:18)
  Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Jeff Emalaba. He is the founder of InvestFusion and it’s a very exciting platform that’s gonna help people save a lot of money and prevent a lot of losses. So I’m excited to get into it. Thanks for being here, Jeff.

  Jeff Emalaba (02:37)
  Nice to meet you as well, Kristen. Nice to meet you.

  Kristen (02:39)
  So let’s, before we get into your investing background, which I definitely want to start with, give us like a, you know, elevator pitch of what Invest Fusion is and what it does.

  Jeff Emalaba (02:51)
  Yeah, thanks very much. InvestFusion is the AI power platform that helps investors find deals, analyze deals, and give them an investment decision in seconds. Think of it like the GBT of real estate investing. It makes investment simple, accessible, and fast. InvestFusion is able to go into a property based on five key parameters. Identify one, the cash flow, the risk.

  exposure of that property, the projected return on investment, the cap rates, and the previous appraisal reports to help investors make informed decision and give you what we call a deal score. And in that score, it lets you know if the deal is a good deal or if it’s a bad

  So it prevents either prevents you from making losses or giving you extra wealth in real estate.

  Kristen (03:42)
  I mean, that’s incredible. Who wouldn’t want that? And you’re an investor yourself, so tell us kind of how you started in this space and how you figured out that this was a white space in the market.

  Jeff Emalaba (03:54)
  So over 20 years, I’ve been very curious as to building lasting wealth and by numbers, by data, real estate is by far the most proven way mobile units are built across the world, not just in the US. And so I know for a fact that real estate is one of those industry I must understand. And I’ve honed my skills with the best in this industry. I’ve laced the ropes. So I’ve spent all these decades learning the industry. Plus I also had to go and become, to get a license education.

  So as a real estate agent here in North Carolina, I needed to understand the formal education of how real estate works. And that’s what drove me into studying real estate and becoming very, very knowledgeable in this space. However, what made me go into the world of creating InvestFusion was my personal experience.

  Some years back the line, I lost over $10,000.

  And I said, this is a loophole. I have to stop this loophole. How do I mean? Imagine buying a car. You go to the dealership and then you see a car.

  The car is beautiful, the paint is beautiful, the tires, everything is clean. And they tell you before you can go in and test drive this car, you have to pay a non-refundable fee. That means if you pay that fee and the car doesn’t even have an engine because you’re not even going under the hood, you’re out, you’ve lost your funds. That’s how investors, that’s the journey of every real estate investor in the US. We buy real estate blindly. We go to listing sites. All we see is the price. We see the car parts. We see the square footage. We see the broker to call.

  No one tells you the true health condition of the property.

  No one lets you know what are the risk exposure. And so before you can take a property off the market, you have to pay what they call a due diligence fee, the DDF. Now it’s not cheap. The due diligence fee costs you anywhere in a seller’s market from $3,500 to over $5,000 for residential properties. For commercial, oh, it’s a different game entirely. Over $10,000 for commercial property. That’s one.

  Now when you pay the due diligence fee, you’re taking the property off the market. But guess what? You have to pay an inspection fee. that’s going to set you back again for over $600. So you are asked already for over $5,600 to investigate the property. But guess what? In my case, I went with my agent. The property was a duplex because we go into multi-family units, was a duplex. So the painting, they did all the superficial painting. had some, all I had to do was some small minor adjustments.

  like the carpeting, just some minor minor adjustment I have to make myself. But there was no way I could know for a fact if the foundation has issues, if there was structural damage, if you had electrical issues, I had to put the property into on contract. And that’s how I lost over $10,000 because the seller selected NRO, which is no representation, means they don’t have the right to disclose the condition of the property.

  And that’s what made me say, no, this is a loophole. have to correct this. And investors should not be buying real estate blindly. And that’s what InvestFusion is built to do, to prevent you from spending your hard earned dollars on deals that are not what is supposed to be what. So before you leave your home, imagine being in your pajamas, drinking coffee, and within 60 seconds, any property, just go to InvestFusion, run the property’s address, and in 60 seconds,

  You’ll know five key things. One, the cashflow opportunity of that property, the projected return on investment, the cap rates, the risk exposure of that property, and of course, the previous appraisal report. Let me put it in perspective to understand how powerful that report is. Lenders, I repeat, lenders will not loan you, they will not give you access to fund. If you buy a property that the value of the price of the property is above the appraised value.

  It’s a no-no in the game of lending. They want to see, you want to buy a property with built-in equity. So if an investor goes and buy a property that the price is above the appraised value, the lenders will back out of that deal. So that’s what InvestFusion does. The previous appraised report gives you two things. One, it lets you know the actual living square footage of the property and lets you know what it was previously appraised for. That way you disbuyer,

  You have informed decision to make. You can renegotiate the price. If you know the previous appraised value, you want to negotiate the price close or around that value because lenders are more comfortable with funding that deal. So InvestFusion prevents blind investment. It’s a no-brainer. This is the only platform that thinks like a human. So if you compare InvestFusion to everything out there, everything out there are just data tools. They give you raw data. No other platform thinks.

  like an investor thinks for you and gives you actionable decisions that can help you find deals within 60 seconds or less.

  Kristen (09:40)
  That’s so incredible. I mean, you’re so well spoken on the topic and it seems like something that’s so needed in this world or in this investing space. Can you talk about the data points you guys are pulling and where that comes from and how it creates what you’re talking about?

  Jeff Emalaba (10:30)
  So we’ve trained over the past 48 months, we’ve trained InvestFusion to understand several data metrics, which is over 400 plus data points. Among them are data like rent, rent comes, you look at the price across the board, you look at the appraisal report across the board, you look at the replacement costs, it looks at all the comes, the cashflow, the five year IRRO. So you look at all of these points. Why are these points important? It helps the AI to look at.

  deals that are 30 or 40 % below market. Because the way we built it is to have only recommend properties with built-in equity. And so when it goes into a market, for example, it tracks all of these points and identify which of these properties fall into that ambit. So you have a cap rate of 7 % or above. A property that’s 30 or 40 % below replacement costs, not below market price or asking price. So identify those properties.

  It gives you the appraisal report helps you to re-evaluate the property itself, the value of the property, and then you benchmark it against. So if you’re buying, for example, a commercial property, they have what they call a memorandum of understanding. Now, most investors don’t even have the time to digest that data. Only InvestFusion can go into a commercial property and let you know the five-year paying history of the tenants. Why is this getting this information for you? Because you, the buyer, you want tenants that are

  capable of paying their rent when you buy a property. It’s going to tell you either tenants are credit worthy, they are capable of paying their rent, or they have what they call a lead clause in their agreement. Investors on those, all of that and more, much more than we can cover in the next three hours, just analyzing the investments on the loan itself. So it’s built to do what it’s unheard of in the real estate industry. It’s a disruption in the real estate industry. It’s leveled the playing field for the average investor.

  to have access to institutional insights without the institutional funds. So they can get into, but getting deals that is simple, it’s fast, and it’s dependable, removing the fear factor from all their investment decisions.

  Kristen (12:35)
  I

  love that. you know, I know you described it as kind of the chat GPT for the real estate investing world, but I assume this is much more sophisticated than that in this sector. What makes it different than other AIs like, you know, chat, GPT, Gronk, all of that. What makes it a better place to go?

  Jeff Emalaba (12:55)
  So Investfusion was designed specifically for the real estate market. Now, if you’re all like Chargibiti, Chargibiti cannot go into a property and let you know, this property has foundation issues. He doesn’t know that. He’s not trained to understand that. Chargibiti cannot go into property and says, I’m gonna fetch the previous appraisal report. He cannot do that. As a matter of fact, the appraisal report is only found by the loan officers or the lenders. And so you have to pay a fee. Usually I think about $500 right now as of today’s market to get the appraisal done.

  Investition puts that in your lap in 60 seconds or less. There is no AI anywhere in the world that does that. These are very, very exclusive reports. Investition fetches that and it digestes that data. So you have the risk that stands Investition out, meaning the true health condition of the property. We mentioned them, the three things you have to avoid, big ticket items, foggy windows, structural damage, foundation issues, electrical issues, those three to four key metrics.

  InvestFusion tracks that for you. That’s number one. Number two is the previous appraisal report. No other platform anywhere in the world can fetch that data, but InvestFusion can fetch that data for you. So it stands out. And just in simple parlance, why is InvestFusion different? Every other tools out there in real estate are just data tools. They give you raw data. You the investor have to interpret that data. No, InvestFusion does the thinking. It thinks like an investor.

  Kristen (14:01)
  That’s amazing.

  Jeff Emalaba (14:20)
  and give you actionable insight. Within 60 seconds, you can tell, is this a good deal or is it bad deal? Should I back out or should I proceed? And it gives you confidence. the real estate agents, their job is simplified. They don’t have to worry about, I’m going to show 10 properties. How would they, is this investor going to buy or they already go with confidence. That’s the difference. That’s the difference with InvestFusion.

  Kristen (14:41)
  Yeah, absolutely. And

  is this like a subscription model or is it per report? How do you guys work?

  Jeff Emalaba (15:31)
  So we’re giving access to seven day free trial. Investors can go in, have access to all the tools of InvestFusion. And the way we built InvestFusion, we want to share the wealth to all our viewers. So we built it where each user has their own ecosystem. So if, for example, you go on, so we have what they call hashtag my deal score. That’s what we have the hashtag that’s going viral right now.

  hashtag my deal score. So any investor will tell them go on InvestFusion, put in any property of your choice or your city, send us your deal score. What is your deal score? When you send us your deal score, we’ll highlight your deal score on our platform and let other viewers know about your score. Now what are we doing is very simple. Every investor can go into InvestFusion once they see how the power of InvestFusion and they share it with their friends, they get what they call

  They get paid to the third level of their members’ monthly subscription. So not only are you saving money, you’re also generating wealth in real estate market and you’re getting paid informing your friends, your loved ones of how powerful InvestFusion is. So imagine the viral effects this will have in the real estate world. And beyond this, we have a lot of the Gen Zs. We have a lot of newer generations who don’t have access to learning these ropes.

  to understand the depth of investment. But with InvestFusion, simple, it’s accessible, and it’s fast for them to make decisions.

  Kristen (17:02)
  Amazing,

  and you were talking earlier about how this could eventually evolve into a marketplace for lenders as well.

  Jeff Emalaba (17:11)
  Absolutely. Absolutely. So that’s something we are exploring because why is that important? Lenders want to form good deals. I mean, that makes sense. Lenders are in it to make money. So they want to good deals. I’ve spoken to a lot of lenders. They’re excited just hearing about Investfusion. As a matter of fact, the deal I’m closing recently on the 24th, my lender was surprised. He how did you find this deal? How did you find this deal in all of the whole Charlotte? I said, I used Investfusion. It’s very simple. Within 15 days, everything has moved so fast.

  There was no stress. My agent had to just go to that property one time. We didn’t have to drive to 10, 15, 20 listings. It saves time, it saves money, and it gives them peace of mind. So for lenders, it’s gonna be a marketplace where it’s gonna be a hub for all lenders across the US to network with investors who are in their own regions. That way they know that if an investor is calling, they have already found the deal, all lenders are gonna ask them is what is your deal score? Because lenders know the deal score already. What is your deal score?

  send us the property’s address. That’s how they confirm it. Because lenders will use the appraisal report, the current appraisal report to grant the funds. If the appraisal report, if the report doesn’t meet the investment, it’s not a deal. So lenders are only willing to fund deals with built-in equity that cashflow. And that’s where InvestwishOn is gonna be a hub and a marketplace for lenders.

  Kristen (18:35)
  amazing well this is all very exciting and you know tell people kind of where you’re at with it now when you’re launching.

  Jeff Emalaba (18:42)
  So we are launching next month. We’re going to right now we are we’re in the beta testing phase. We are inviting yourself as well. We are inviting private investors to join us to actually test. No, go behind the scene. Be among the early founding members. You know, come and see invest in real time. So we’re inviting institutional investments, boutique firms, real estate agents, real estate investors, or those who are brand new to real estate investing itself. And of course, our dear lender friends.

  Let them come in and test InvestFusion that way. So once they send us a request that they want to be among the private beta testers, we grant them access and they can go in and, you know, for the next seven days, run their hands through InvestFusion, check it and give us their own feedback because we welcome feedback. The more the feedback we have, the more improvement we’re going to make with InvestFusion. And I see it as the future of real estate investing. So imagine this, look at how where we are right now with technology. It’s so impossible to think life without charge GBT right now.

  That’s how it’s going to be in real estate world. In the next few years, investors will wonder, how did I survive without InvestFusion? Because it’s going to be the go-to tool. Don’t just go to a listing site. Buying a property on a listing site is a blind investment. There is no choice about it. And that’s why lenders are more inclined to support a deal that has a deal score from InvestFusion because they know InvestFusion is the only platform or tool in the world that evaluates risk upfront.

  before giving you a deal that rewards going to Tobacco.

  Kristen (20:13)
  I love that. Well, thank you so much for kind of breaking everything down. I think that people are probably learning a lot about what they could add to their business to save some money. Tell everybody where to find you, to find Invest Fusion, and yeah, anything else you want to say about it.

  Jeff Emalaba (20:29)
  So yeah, so investors right now, to join the waitlist, because we have a waitlist, if you go on investfusion, investfusion.co, you will see, you have access to join the waitlist. Just put in your name, your email address, reach out to my team, we’ll reach out to you, and then you have access to join the waitlist. We’ll get back to you and let you know once you are ready to plug you into the waitlist, and then you’re good to go. That’s how

  can join the waitlist. And then you can reach out to me directly. Of course, my mobile is 470-278-4768.

  investors can reach out to me directly or just go to support at investfusion.co. So they type in support at investfusion.co they can reach out to our team and then we can guide them. Again, like I said, you are an institutional investor or a boutique firm, a real estate agent, a real estate investor or you are a lender, wherever you are, you have an interest to create generational wealth, lasting wealth in real estate, InvestFusion is your tool.

  Kristen (21:25)
  Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Jeff. I think this has been awesome.

  Jeff Emalaba (21:30)
  Thank you, thank you, Kristen. I appreciate you as well.

  Kristen (21:32)
  Thank you everybody for listening. really encourage you to check out Invest Fusion. It seems like a really innovative, you know, some innovative tech in the space that I think can help a lot of people. So thank you for listening and we will see you back next time. Bye.