Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Berthram Beverly Samuel, a seasoned real estate acquisitions expert. Berthram shares insights into his journey in real estate, focusing on large-scale acquisitions, negotiation strategies, and the importance of financing. He discusses his unique approach to evaluating properties based on future market value and highlights his commitment to social good through global economic initiatives. The conversation also touches on the dynamics of working with a global team and the importance of inclusivity in major deals.
Resources and Links from this show:
-
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Berthram Samuel (00:00)
Well, I think that one of the interesting concepts is when you’re putting a project together and you have a ⁓ lender at the table, lending institution, then I think that is probably one of the more crucial parts of acquisition because a lot of people, they need the capital, so they simply accept the capital.But the reality is that is the point where you need to negotiate the deal.
Michelle Kesil (02:05)
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Berthram Samuel, who is a real estate acquisitions. So excited to have you on the show today, Berthram .Berthram Samuel (02:22)
⁓ it’s an honor to be here. I’m so glad to be here. Thank you for having me.Michelle Kesil (02:26)
I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching finding the best projects and Executing them strategically. So let’s dive inBerthram Samuel (02:38)
Well, good. There are two projects that I want to share. One is, I’m just going to show you because I’m right here right now. I don’t know if you can see that building. Well, that particular building we are preparing an offer for at the moment and it spans about a whole block. And so that’s going to be a big program for us and we should have Phil’s office in probably by the end of next week.And then we have the, and then we’ve put in a bid, it’s over a month now that we’ve put in a bid for the Warner Brothers acquisition. And as you know, well, you might not know, but ⁓ Paramount and Netflix are both bidding on that. But we believe that our bid is going to be successful.
Michelle Kesil (03:06)
Amazing, that’s exciting.Congratulations, awesome. And for the listeners that are not familiar with you and what you do, can you share what your main focus is?
Berthram Samuel (03:37)
Well, we have ⁓ basically, I think, a couple of main focus. One is ⁓ real estate acquisition. And so ⁓ that is one of the main things that we do. But we also organize every year, which is going to be in Egypt this year, but we organize the Global Economic Convention. And that’s fairlyour big forest, but we have lots and lots of smaller entities that goes under the holding companies that we have. So we have our fingers into quite a few things, but primarily the acquisition is what I spend most of my time on.
Michelle Kesil (04:25)
Awesome, how did you get started in the acquisitions?Berthram Samuel (04:29)
Wow, that goes back a very very long time but because i’ve been doing this for forever but I used to work for the governments and Doing airports and roads and schools and that kind of stuff So guess I started out in the Caribbean doing that particular thing, but i’ve been doing acquisitions for quite a while I’ve bought many many things small things. I’ve bought ⁓Bellagio’s art gallery, I bought that. I bought small hotels. So I’ve been doing smaller things for a very, very, very long time. We no longer concentrate on that. We concentrate on very, very large projects right now. But as far as doing acquisition, it’s well over 10 years. And as far as public relations goes with that, over another 30 years. So we’ve been doing acquisitions and international relations for a very, very, long time.
Michelle Kesil (05:25)
Awesome. What are some of the main keys that you feel have made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow?Berthram Samuel (06:22)
Well, I think that one of the interesting concepts is when you’re putting a project together and you have a ⁓ lender at the table, lending institution, then I think that is probably one of the more crucial parts of acquisition because a lot of people, they need the capital, so they simply accept the capital.But the reality is that is the point where you need to negotiate the deal.
Because you have to make sure that all factors are taken care of in relationship of the income that you’re planning to produce from a particular property. And so if you don’t negotiate these things in the beginning, you find yourself foreclosed because the income didn’t quite go the way that you wanted it to go.
So I would say that one of our pluses is the waterfall is making noise, so I hope you can hear. But one of our pluses is the negotiations of what could happen. And so instead of rushing to the deal to finance, we say, now, here are the scenarios. Everything looks good right now, but no one controls the future.
And so we don’t want to be negotiating with you in the future if something comes up. We want to take care of it now when our position is strong. And so I think too many people go into a finance deal for their properties and just take the deal and they don’t realize that you can and should negotiate for eventuality. It doesn’t make you weak. It means that you know that you don’t control the world. And so if you take
plans to do those two things then chances are you will never lose a property.
Michelle Kesil (08:19)
Yeah, amazing. What does the negotiation process typically look like for you?Berthram Samuel (08:24)
Well, the first thing you realize is that there are many ways to cap a deal as far as capital is concerned. And though they may come to the table with a particular guideline, you’re the one that has to steer the conversation. So I never go into a meeting for capital as if I’m in need.I’d go into meeting for capital as a partnership so we can sit down and negotiate the best outcome for everyone. And I think being able to do that is probably a very, very plus of MaraSci. And if you’re willing, and it’s a very difficult thing what I’m about to say, but if you’re willing to walk away from financing, you can make a much better deal with the person you’re talking to.
And so you shouldn’t go in thinking that that’s the end of the world, that nobody else wants you. And so you should be always respectful to the other person, but you should know that somebody else will want to do your deal if this particular deal doesn’t work the way that you want it to from a financial standpoint.
I wanted to show you the new building that we were at so because I wanted to do that we had to be outside so there.
Michelle Kesil (09:41)
hahaYeah, for those
listening to the podcast without the video, those are the outside sound effects.
Berthram Samuel (09:54)
YeahMichelle Kesil (09:55)
Awesome. What are you most focused on scaling to next in your business?Berthram Samuel (09:55)
No.Well, to tell you the truth, my focus today is not today on the podcast, but today in my future is the Warner Brothers acquisition. Warner Brothers acquisition came out of nowhere. Three months ago, ⁓ no one thought Warner Brothers was for sale. And all of a sudden, ⁓ Paramount made an offer. And when I saw that Paramount made an offer,
I knew right away we were interested in Warner Brothers, so we were the second person to make an offer and not actually Netflix or Comcast. So we made an offer and then Paramount upped its offer and when I made the offer, because I like to, often when person buys a property or a company or something, they finance the property. They finance
the company, they finance whatever they’re going to buy, I like to finance the operations. So I negotiate for finance for acquisition and I negotiate the finance for the operation. So I’m not two or three years down the road saying, we’re to have enough money to do something because I already financed that in the beginning. So when I financed, ⁓ when I started financing, because I haven’t completed yet,
the financials for the Warner Brothers, I had paid in there an additional 30 million. And so that million, I’m sorry, 30 billion. And that money was for operations and expansion. So when I approached the lenders, they already knew that I was looking for 30 million above the amount, 30 billion with a B.
And so when the bid raised and everybody then was above my bid, it was easy for me to say, listen, instead of putting 30 billion into ⁓ expansion and operation, let’s put 10 and let’s take the additional 20 billion and go above the other bids. Because if we don’t have the company, we don’t have anything. And so it turns out that the way that I approach financing
turned out to be the only thing that kept us in the race now that the bids are higher because otherwise it would have been way over our heads.
Michelle Kesil (13:00)
Yeah, absolutely. What a great process that you have.Berthram Samuel (13:04)
any process. Well, there’s something that’s probably unique to what we do and that is that ⁓ when a person goes to buy a building or property or an acquisition, they look at the value of the acquisition. They say, okay, today is December 8th whatever, or 10th or 11th, and today this property is worth X amount of dollars.And so I’m going to bid X amount of dollars and then I’m going to raise X amount of dollars. And that is the norm. What we do is we sit down and we say, OK, what is the mark to market value? What is the property going to be worth in seven years? What is the business going to be worth in 10 years? And what is it going to be worth when we do what we’re planning on doing with it? And because we do that, we come up with a
more true working value and we’re able to better bid. So there for instance there is a property that we like very much it’s in New York City and it was 73 million dollars but the value of that particular property in the future just a few years down the road is extremely high. So instead of going in with everybody at
73 million, we simply bid 75 because we looked at the mark to market value. And so now we’re standing alone. And so I think that’s one of the keys to the way that we operate. ⁓ We don’t go in and say, OK, what is it worth today? We go in and say, well, since we’re going to keep it, what is it worth tomorrow? And that’s how we proceed. And that makes us interesting.
Michelle Kesil (14:51)
Yeah, absolutely. Are there other investment strategies that you are working on or just the acquisitions component?Berthram Samuel (15:41)
Well, those strategies that I mentioned are the ones that I’m doing, but there are many things that we ⁓ are working on. We have a global economic initiative and is for the economic development of emerging nations. So the purpose of that is to provide economic development that alleviates poverty. And so that’s kind of one of our ⁓ pet projects.So we’ve been doing that now. We started that in 2019. And that’s very special to us because those projects, even though they are to be profitable, they take in mind the social good. And I appreciate that and what we do.
Michelle Kesil (16:24)
Can you expand on that? How are you like supporting the economy and the social good? What does that look like?Berthram Samuel (16:32)
How do I like supporting the economy and social good? ⁓ Well, we have, we’re putting up some housing projects and those projects are based on your income. So if you move into one of those housing projects, you will never be evicted unless you decide to move. Because what happens is if your income goes down, then your rent goes down. However, if your income goes up, your rent goes up as well. But it puts you into aMichelle Kesil (16:36)
Yeah, like what are these projects? Yeah, go ahead.Berthram Samuel (17:01)
scenario where you never have to worry about not having a place. Also, it has ⁓ backup water and backup generator. So if your power or water is ever disconnected, then you get four hours included in your rent of power and four hours included in your rent of water. So you’re never without. That’s a special project for us that we think is quite helpful to the less fortunate or to someone that comes on a little bit ofa hard time. So that’s an apartment that gives you peace of mind because you know no matter what happens you will be there until you’re ready to move.
Michelle Kesil (17:40)
Awesome. How are like are you creating these in specific markets or all over the US?Berthram Samuel (17:47)
Well, actually we are a global company and so we have projects set for almost 73 countries. have about 23 countries ready to go. And so the projects are slightly different. That particular project that I just told you about is a US project. ⁓ But we have similar types of projects depending on the need of the country throughout the world.but we’re still a growing company.
Michelle Kesil (18:15)
Yeah, that’s super cool. And when you’re working on a global scale, do you have like a big team that’s supporting you?Berthram Samuel (18:23)
We have a good team that’s in support of what we’re doing. And it’s not so much that you need the size, it’s that you need quality. And especially when you’re working overseas, you need a team that is familiar with where you are. And it is good as leaders to be familiar with where we are as well, because cultures and emotions are different in various places. So that’s important. So quality is better than quantity.because you can always hire a contractor.
Michelle Kesil (18:54)
Yeah, absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. The people on your team and your network definitely support your business.Berthram Samuel (19:02)
Say that again.Michelle Kesil (19:03)
I said the relationships and the people on your team are the ones that support your business.Berthram Samuel (19:09)
⁓ My business has a very interesting formula of supporting. I learned a long time ago when I had the opportunity to be on a banking committee, the Worldwide Banking Committee, I learned the formula that was available outside of a normal individual. And so hence, I’ve been able to ⁓ access and to pursue those particular formulas.because it works on a much different way than walking into your bank and saying, I’m putting up a building, ⁓ I’d like to buy this building, and could you please lend me some money? And the rest of the upper tier of the world work on a different way. And when I learned that many years ago when I was appointed to this worldwide committee and had to deal with banks in Europe and other parts of the world, I realized that
that major, major projects and major, major players operate on a different way. So I took that process and applied it to, even though I’m smaller than they are, to what we do. And so I don’t operate with the smaller ⁓ things. I operate on a different level.
Michelle Kesil (20:27)
That’s amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your journey. Yeah.Berthram Samuel (20:28)
But I Yes, I should tell yousomething about the Warner Brothers Deal which is kind of unique to what I’m doing because normally Small players get locked out of deals like that so for instance Paramount is borrowing seven billion here and seven billion there and then he got I think 25 billion from his father and so an up-and-coming
lender or an up-and-coming institution never gets an opportunity to do that. I chose instead, even though it is a lot more hassle, but I chose instead to include a lot of the smaller institutions in what we’re doing in terms of financing the Warner Brothers property. Now, I can’t tell you that it’s easier because instead of dealing with one or two
attorneys representing an institution, you’re dealing with many. And so it is more complicated, but it gives an opportunity for a person who normally would not have been able to participate in a deal like this to participate. And I like to help as many people as I can. So helping those lending institutions to be a part of a really big project, that’s good. And they get so excited. So that was really good to see.
Michelle Kesil (21:42)
Yeah.Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Amazing. Before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out and learn more, where can people connect with you?
Berthram Samuel (21:51)
You’re welcome.⁓ Well, my emails, well, you first can go to my website, which is ⁓ www myname berthrambeverlysamuel.org. And that lists most of the things that we do. And ⁓ my public email is bsamuel at g, I’m sorry, [email protected]
So you can use that. have other emails that goes with the website. But I check Gmail most often, because it’s always next to me.
Michelle Kesil (22:36)
Perfect. Well, thank you so much for your perspective and your time. Appreciate you being here.Berthram Samuel (22:42)
Well, thank you for having me and it’s an absolute pleasure to be on your podcast and I will look forward to sharing it with as many people as I can so that they also know that you’re there. So thank you for inviting me and I’m so happy to be here.Michelle Kesil (22:49)
awesome.Thank you. And for the listeners tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators that are building real businesses and we’ll see you on the next episode.
