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Securities Attorney Seth Bradley on Compliant Syndications and Real Estate Funds

By December 16, 2025Real Estate Pros Show


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Show Summary

In this conversation, Seth Bradley, a securities attorney and real estate investor, shares insights on capital raising, the real estate market, and personal growth. He discusses his journey from a rural upbringing in West Virginia to becoming a successful attorney and entrepreneur. Seth emphasizes the importance of accountability, overcoming adversity, and building strong relationships through effective networking and communication skills. He also highlights the significance of raising capital compliantly in the real estate sector and encourages listeners to reach out for guidance.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Seth (00:00)
    Yeah, man. I mean, I’m all about raising capital and doing it compliantly. There’s a lot of people out there that are raising capital non-compliantly because they don’t understand the rules and the laws and regulations around it. But that’s what I’m here for. That’s what securities attorneys are for. We’re here to help guide you. And that’s what I do. So I would love for people to just reach out to me. you want to scale your business, you’ve got to use other people’s money. And that means raising capital, partnering with people that have capital when you run out of your own.

    Quentin (02:00)
    Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. am your host Q Edmonds and you know, I am super excited to be here. I’m excited about my guests. ⁓ man, listen, you probably don’t listen. I’m gonna use his words. If I don’t know to look at my man, but he’s, he’s in a security attorney. I told him, and I’m just going be honest, I’m gonna show you exactly. said, smooth ass looking attorney right here. But not only is he an attorney that he’s, he’s an investor. He knows what he’s doing.

    He know how to put you in a position to raise capital. You know how to really help out the real estate investor. And that’s what he’s going to talk about. And I’m so glad to have him here. I want to introduce you all to Mr. Seth Bradley. Mr. Seth, how you doing today,

    Seth (02:43)
    Q, what’s going on brother? I’m doing great. How are you?

    Quentin (02:46)
    man, doing great, doing great. Happy to be here. I get to do something that I love to do and that’s to get to meet new people and to see things from their perspective, from their lens. Now can get some miters doing the exact same thing all the time and still get a unique perspective because you are a master at what you do. And so I’m really excited to have you here just to pick your brain, so Seth, I’ll be honest, I want to dive in. I would love for you to tell people what your main focus is these days.

    If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of how you got started, we love the hero’s journey here. So you want to tell us a little bit of how you got started. We love that. And then also you want to let us know where you at in the world, man, what markets you operate in or the people that in the demographic that you serve. We’d love to know that too, man. So Seth, sir, you got to go, my friend.

    Seth (03:34)
    All right, man. Yeah, that’s a lot. There’s a lot. I’m here in sunny San Diego. ⁓ Love it. Favorite city in the US. So I decided to just live here, but I didn’t grow up here. I grew up in rural West Virginia. was actually born in South Korea and I was adopted three months old. Ended up in West Virginia. Basically the only Asian in the whole state. ⁓ you know, ⁓ West Virginia is home. I call West Virginia home because I love it.

    Quentin (03:37)
    Yeah, it was a lot.

    Seth (04:04)
    It’s a beautiful state. My parents still live there. I go back a few times a year. But I grew up, you know, like a lot of people chasing, you know, the best job you can get, thinking trading time for money is the only way to do it. And, the only people in my little town that owned real estate or owned businesses were the local politician family, right? It’s even the mansions and we’re friends with them. You’ve probably heard of them and seen them on TV. The mansions were the local.

    local family in town, they own the grocery store, they own the gas station, they own the apartments, they own the real estate, you they owned everything, right? And everybody else was just kind of, you know, they do normal things. They’re teachers, they’re doctors, they’re dentists, they’re coal miners in West Virginia. My dad’s a retired coal miner, my mom’s a retired school teacher, grew up, you know, blue collar. And to me, it was always like, what’s the best job you can possibly get? And that was always, in my mind, was to be a doctor.

    Right? So I went to, I went down that pathway. went to law or sorry, I went to medical school for a year and a

    dropped out because I hated it. I knew it wasn’t for me. I’m still kind of searching for what I wanted to do. In the meantime, I got my MBA and went ahead and went to law school after that too. Law school was okay. I did really well there. I saw kind of the vision at that point where I could get into business. I started feeling kind of that entrepreneurial itch. But I started out in big law. I got that pedigree.

    Most recently I worked at DLA Piper. It’s the third largest law firm in the world. So I have a big law pedigree, big law experience. And that’s enabled me to be able to put together and help clients raise capital compliantly, which is what I do now. I’m a securities attorney by trade, but I’m also a real estate investor. I’m a co-founder in some tech startups. But it’s all centered around real estate. Like it all comes back to real estate because I love it. Like I think a lot of us out there, especially the listeners are like,

    You just love real estate. You don’t know why. mean, you know, it’s a good investment. You know, you can create wealth with it. You know, there’s all these great things, these tangible things about it. But there’s always this step feeling. You’re like, man, real estate is love it. You love talking about you love having conversations about it. doesn’t matter if you’re a wholesaler or a fix and flipper or short term rental owner or a capital raiser, you know, whatever it is. Like a lot of us just have that that feeling that we want to want to be exposed to real estate. And I have that that same feeling. And I think

    because I come from the business side as well and I’m a real estate investor myself, that’s how I can really help clients because I’ve been in their shoes and I am in their shoes. I’m not just a service.

    Quentin (07:23)
    Yeah, yeah, no, I love it. Thank you for walking me through the journey and I’m writing stuff down I’m like this guy was about to be could have been a doctor now. He’s a lawyer Real estate investor. I’m like man like you know, you’re checking off a lot of different boxes and a lot of us wish we could check off but you know, so Obviously you had an incredible journey pass off to your parents. They sound like hard workers sound like they put amazing values in you and

    I kind of want to pick your brain a little bit on some of the key kind of strategies and values that have kind of piled with you throughout your journey. And I would love to know business strategies, business things that’s piled with you, and also some personal strategies that piled with you. I know some people do meditation and working out, but so what are some core business strategies and personal strategies that has helped you along your journey?

    Seth (08:19)
    Yeah, for sure. And to me, obviously there’s a difference between personal and business, but the closer you can make those two things the same, the more you’re gonna feel kind of centered in life and the more fulfilled you’re gonna be. you can have all your business and your family and life and personal stuff all together, it’s all kind of congruent, works together, that’s when you find happiness and that’s what you need. I think that’s what people should strive for. It’s not one or the other, it’s not black and white, it’s all one and the same. ⁓

    I’ve just now kind of gotten to that point where it’s like, you know, a lot of my business partners, they’re my best friends now too. It didn’t used to be that way. When I was younger, you know, my best friends are people that I would go to the bar with, right? And hang out with and have drinks with. And that’s probably as far as those relationships ever got. They didn’t get that deep. They were surface level, that sort of thing. But nowadays it’s like my business partners, well, first of all, they’re my business partners because they’re smart, intelligent, resourceful, and they’re good at what they do.

    but they’re also good people and they’re people that I would want to hang out with and want to go to dinner with and want to have a beer with, right? So, you know, those two things are starting to come together. So I really, I really value relationships and bringing business and personal, personal relationships together. You know, that’s it’s a pretty broad question. I mean, there’s a couple of things I would like to mention is, you know, a couple of core values to me that are really important and that really drive me. And I’ll just pick one actually, accountability to me is always in the back of my mind.

    mean, accountability across all things, whether that’s in your job or in investing or running a team or even being a W-2 employee, whatever it is, just accountability, right? Accountability for ⁓ your actions, for your results,

    or where you are. ⁓ Giving anyone else or anything else power over you doesn’t help you. Doesn’t help you.

    Now, some of us were born into certain things and weren’t born into certain things. And that’s, that’s fact, right? That is a fact. We all understand that. But leaning on those things and those shortcomings aren’t going to get you anywhere. But by being accountable and saying, well, I don’t care where I started or I don’t care if it might actually be somebody else’s fault. It doesn’t matter that you can’t help those things, but what you can control, what you can help is, well, what can I do? What can I do better? What could I have done differently to have a better result?

    and have a better result the next time. So accountability for myself and I hold all of my employees and people, business partners and people I work with to that same standard and that’s being accountable and saying, can I do better to improve?

    Quentin (11:27)
    Yeah, no, that’s a huge word. And I’m glad you chose to highlight accountability because that resonates with me so much. You know, I have what I call a group of accountability men in my life. That’s like the board of directors of my life. That’s also, you know, people I’m accountable to in business. But I don’t want to make any decision just in a hollow, just a decision just based on my own head. I believe wisdom is in the counsel of many. Right. So when you have people that can hold you accountable.

    More times you’re going to make a wiser decision than you just make an isolated solitude decision. And I love how you talk about like integrating your life. Like when you integrate your life on all levels, you know, I got another saying where I say, when you know who you are, know, when you know who you are, you know what to do. When you know who you are, when you have a well integrated life, you can put me in a business decision. You can put me in a personal decision. I’m still going to be the same person I supposed to be probably by the same core values.

    So I appreciate everything that you said. It really connected with me.

    Seth (12:28)
    Yeah, 100%. 100 % man. Yeah, it’s all about finding that fulfillment, finding that integration between personal and business and just life in general, man, because it’s short.

    Quentin (12:40)
    Absolutely,

    you got that right for sure. So Seth, let me ask you, as you you built success on this journey to success, has there had you faced any adversity? Now, I like to tell people all the time, there’s a there’s a journey to success. And how we got to the success sometimes it comes through, you know, having to pivot fast or something, you know, deals falling through or something not going the way you expected it to go. So are there any times that you had to face adversity as you was building?

    Seth (13:07)
    Tons, man, there’s tons. I think the key is that you’re resilient and that you learn from those things that either happen to you or happen for you, however you want to look at it, and you move on. You move on, because there’s going to be another at bat. For me, growing up in West Virginia, I went to a pretty big high school with 1,500 kids. I was the only Asian there. There was no diversity whatsoever.

    You can imagine there’s a little bit of racism going on there and looking back if I think about it I’m like man that was actually pretty bad But I’ve already like moved on like I think a lot of people get stuck on those things and they use it as a as a crutch almost Yeah in their life, and I’ve just kind of used it as a as a propel Moving forward and then I’ve moved on like I don’t even think about it But that was definitely something I had to had to overcome looking back, but it’s just like so far behind me at this point

    I don’t even bother with it. And I would say some other things like dropping out of medical school. That’s some adversity right there. Like, what are you going to do? mean, you think of doctors as kind of the apex of society. And they are. They’re incredible people. They do incredible things. And we need them. And to pivot my life out of that into something else, and I kind of went down a pathway of partying for a little while after that while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.

    ⁓ you know, that’s some adversity I had to deal with. and luckily, you know, I did stay kind of in school and in higher education. As I mentioned, I got my MBA in law school. I’d stayed in that the whole time because school came pretty easy to me. so I was fortunate enough to have that. ⁓ but certainly there was adversity along the way and there’s, there’s, you know, endless number of business things that have come up along the journey. And you’ve just got to know that, Hey, you got to deal with it.

    and you gotta move on. You gotta deal with it move on. If you’re a true entrepreneur,

    you’re gonna have lots of stuff come up and the more bullshit that you can deal with on a daily and weekly and monthly basis and keep moving forward and keep doing better, the more successful you’re gonna be.

    Quentin (15:56)
    I absolutely love it. So some parallels, you I was the only ⁓ black person, you know, in my graduating class in high school. ⁓ Unlike you, school did not come easy to me. School was not easy to me. I had to work really, really hard. ⁓ But like you, I had the same mentality that you can get unstuck. You do not have to say stuff. You are a master of your own, captain of your own ship, master of your own fate.

    Like you can find a way to pull yourself forward. You’re going to find a way to get your mindset, to get your, you know, yes, things may have happened that was unfair, but you can’t control it. Like you said, it’s happened. How do we move forward past that? So you can get unstuck. So I’m with you. I believe in doing the hard work, the hard work on my mind, hard work on my mental, but hard work, you know, when it comes to business and the reality, creating a reality that you want. And so I definitely hear you on that. And I think that’s a good mindset.

    a good mind shift for people that’s watching this that may be stuck. And so I appreciate you saying that.

    Seth (17:02)
    100 % man, you sound like you’ve got the right mindset, right? you know, always moving forward, always saying, how can I get better? Taking accountability for your actions and even for other people’s actions, but just saying like, what can I control? And don’t worry about what you can’t.

    Quentin (17:18)
    That part right there. Now I hear you down here, Seth. So let me ask you, man, what’s the next real goal? Is there look, is there something you’re looking to solve or something that you’re looking to scale? Like, what’s the next real goal for you?

    Seth (17:32)
    Yeah, I mean, overall, we’re really trying to bring private equity, private real estate deals to the mass market. Like we’re trying to expand, right? That’s through one, through my law firm, Raise Law. So like you mentioned before, I don’t necessarily look like an attorney. I don’t talk like an attorney, but I do have the pedigree. And me and my law firm partner are looking to really expand that and help people raise capital compliantly.

    through funds and syndications and fund to funds. And then also through a company that I’m chief legal officer for called Tribe Vest, which I think a lot of people have probably already heard about. We put together SPV fund to funds for people to raise capital into, and then in turn invest into let’s say somebody else’s syndication or fund. And we make it super easy and economical to do that. And we’re working really hard right now to get through our series A.

    raise around right now. that’s because we are we are a tech company. We’re software.

    Quentin (18:31)
    Definitely hear you man, and I hear you saying a lot. We, I know you talked a little bit about your partners. You’re a lawyer. It seems like you make incredible connections. And so I kind of want to pick your brain a little bit about relationships. I would love for you to talk to us about if relationships are valuable to you and if they are valuable to you, how have they affected you? Has it been positive, negative? I would just love to hear your thoughts on relationships, man.

    Seth (18:58)
    It’s huge, man. Relationships are everything. And you wouldn’t know it now, but, you know, five years ago, like I would be scared to death to be on a show like this, to be on a show with the camera rolling, to be talking to somebody like this. I would just be a little bit nervous. Like, I’m just not used to it. Like I hated, hated like going to, you know, these networking events that we had to go to as a lawyer. Just, just hated it. Just was not for it. And then it was crazy enough that like when COVID hit,

    I launched my own podcast because I was in a mastermind at the time and they said, hey, you’ve got to launch a podcast or start a mastermind or start a meetup. Meetups were big at the time. And I was like, you know what, let’s just, let’s do this podcast thing. And I had no idea what I was doing, but through that podcast, I was able to become a better speaker, not just online, but in person. You just network with all kinds of awesome people. And it really just, it helps you in so many different facets of life. Like I can’t even.

    I can’t even describe it. even, you know, I love going to networking events now and I probably still hate going to those lawyer networking events that I used to hate. I still probably still hate them. I might have fun with it nowadays though. I think I’m a little more confident now and I’d have fun with it. But, you know, like the real estate networking events like BEC and ⁓ Raise Fest and places like that. Love to go to those places, see the people.

    see people that I’ve met online in person or they’ll be like, I listened to your show or I saw you online and I do the same thing with other people. And it’s awesome. It’s awesome to like actually get in front of somebody, shake their hand, have a conversation, have a drink. It’s awesome.

    Quentin (20:35)
    Yeah. Again, you bring a big smile to my face because similarly, I started a podcast ⁓ right when COVID hit or, you know, right in the middle of COVID. Did not want to be on camera. I like connecting and talking to people, but I had mentors around me to saying, hey, man, you know, you really need to get on camera. You really need to do a podcast. Did not want to. So I’m just like you. I think people would would not have guessed five years ago.

    I would not be caught dead doing this. just wouldn’t. you definitely like to connect with people, but just on camera talking to different people. Yeah, that just wasn’t my forte. ⁓ But I’m like, like, like you said so many times, you know, we can recreate ourselves. We can face our fears. And once we once we face what we uncomfortable with, we get very comfortable in being uncomfortable sometimes. You know what saying? And so I am with you. Like I’ve learned.

    that yes, some things gonna be awkward, it’s gonna be uncomfortable at the beginning, but man, you can master anything once you put your mind to it. Once you have the intentionality to really go at it. You can almost master anything. I don’t think I would have people trust me to be a doctor or nothing like that, but you know.

    little bitch, just a little bitch, you know what I’m So yeah, so yeah, but I think people know what I mean. If you really put the work in, you can do anything that you, you can do anything that you want to.

    Seth (22:03)
    I think speaking in generally is like a big one. It’s a big one. Because if you ask somebody what’s your biggest fear, mean, so many people would say public speaking, which to me includes this, like whether even if it’s one-on-one or one to many or in person, like it’s speaking, right? It’s just speaking generally. People are scared to death to do it, but man, it is such a huge unlock in your life if you are able to get in front of people and communicate, whether that’s online, whether that’s in front of people at a meeting or at a presentation.

    or at an industry event, like whatever it is, you just need to get, you really need to get good at communicating your ideas and your feelings and your thoughts and organizing them in a great way to others. And it’s powerful. Like it just changes your life and your confidence.

    Quentin (22:49)
    Yeah, no, I totally agree. So as he just said, you know, know, communication, getting serious about what it is that you want to do, what you want to present. And I want to build on it that too, you know, I would tell you also not you by our audience, just be curious, be naturally curious. When you’re naturally curious about something, you have a way to ask questions that really develop a real deep meaning about what it is that you’re trying to go after. So

    Anything that you’re thinking about pursuing, just be naturally curious. Don’t think about it as, know, it’s a task. This is a job. Be curious about it. And I promise you, it will unlock some creativity in you where you will really approach things from a different perspective. What do you think about that? Seth, you think that’s a good thing, being curious?

    Seth (23:36)
    Always, always be curious. I think some, like it goes right with the communication thing. I mean, people are afraid of getting into conversations with strangers. They don’t, they say, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what, you know, how to keep a conversation going. I’m just keeping it your mind just to be curious, right? Just ask questions, just ask why or what, right? And people love, love, love, love to talk about themselves, right? So like the more that you ask questions and they talk, the more that they’re gonna remember.

    speaking to you, even if they’re the ones that were speaking the whole time, because people love talking about themselves and where they’re from and what they do and all those sorts of things. So actually the best way to make an impression on somebody is to ask questions and have them speak most of

    Quentin (24:16)
    Absolutely, yeah, he’s giving you a master class. Yeah, absolutely. That’s free game right there. Yeah Seth man. This has been incredible before we start to wrap up, know, I’ll do a clean call to action after I asked you this. But is there anything else that you can think of that maybe you want to give people by way of encouragement, education, just anything that you can think of? Maybe hey, let me just put this last little nugget right here. Is there anything that comes to mind for you, Seth?

    Seth (24:44)
    Yeah, man. I mean, I’m all about raising capital and doing it compliantly. There’s a lot of people out there that are raising capital non-compliantly because they don’t understand the rules and the laws and regulations around it. But that’s what I’m here for. That’s what securities attorneys are for. We’re here to help guide you. And that’s what I do. So I would love for people to just reach out to me. you want to scale your business, you’ve got to use other people’s money. And that means raising capital, partnering with people that have capital when you run out of your own.

    And many times that’s gonna get you into the law or into the realm of securities law. And you’re gonna need to secure as attorney to help structure your deals. And I’m that person. So reach out anytime with any questions and you can find me online just about anywhere for content about raising capital.

    Quentin (25:30)
    Gotcha. So is that the call to action? The way they get in contact with you, just look at where you looked you up and they can find you anywhere. The name Seth Bradley is.

    Seth (25:39)
    Absolutely, man. I’d say the best place would be, you for a broad audience would be just to go to SethBradleyESQ.com and all of my stuff, all of my companies are there. You can get links to Raise Law and Tribevest that I mentioned and all my social media links and all that. And you can find me all over social media anyways.

    Quentin (25:58)
    Absolutely. But there he is, y’all, Bradley. Seth, sir, first off, thank you for your time. I really appreciate that. Secondly, thank you for your stories, incredible stories. You’re a credible and storyteller. And so I see everything as stories. think nothing in his mural moves without stories. And so thank you so much for your storytelling. But definitely thank you for your perspective, for your mind, the way you think. I think you planted enough seeds for people to have a slight mind shift as they look at

    life as they look at business. And so I really appreciate you being here today. This is great,

    Seth (26:34)
    Thanks, Q, really appreciate it,

    Quentin (26:36)
    Absolutely. Well, listen y’all got the value you got it from Mr. Seth y’all heard it Please make sure you subscribe that way you can always come when that alert goes off You can come in and get this content. Mr. Seth. I thank you again. so everyone else we will see you on the next time

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