Unlocking Real Estate Success: Paul Anderson’s Top Financing Strategies

Michelle Kesil (00:02.029)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I am your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Paul Anderson, who’s been making serious moves in the lending space. Paul, I’m really glad to have you here. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching your

business, working with investors, working with the lending space and yeah, I’m excited to dive in with you.

Paul Anderson (00:39.422)
I’m excited too and thank you for the opportunity, Michelle.

Michelle Kesil (00:42.784)
Awesome. So first off for people that may not be familiar with your world, just give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days?

Paul Anderson (00:53.738)
I always jokingly say my job is to put you into large sums of debt for long periods of time, but really what I do is I help provide financing for real estate transactions. So my goal and objective is to take my clients and investors and help them find the best, most cost-effective source of capital so they can fund their real estate transactions and create income and wealth.

Michelle Kesil (01:16.106)
Awesome. And what markets are you operating in?

Paul Anderson (01:20.114)
All of them that will allow me. Primarily, my primary markets are the Pacific Northwest and California. Some of my tertiary markets are going to be Florida, Texas, the Midwest, doing a lot more in Tennessee and Missouri than I have in the past. Those are my primary areas of focus.

Michelle Kesil (01:41.134)
Amazing. And yeah, what caught my attention about you is the way that you’ve been able to really work across all these multiple markets. yeah, what you mentioned earlier about giving people that healthy debt. Would you mind expanding on those two facets of your business?

Paul Anderson (02:04.606)
Yeah well and as we were talking earlier I’m fortunate I grew up in a real estate family so I’ve literally been doing something in or around real estate since I was eight years old so it’s really kind of all that I know.

and also living here my whole life. I’ve been here, like I said, since I was born, so I have this innate ability to connect with local people and I have a great network. And over the years, my business has expanded from real estate sales into working in commercial real estate, buying, selling, buildings, acquisitions, leasing, but I was always truly in love with the money side of it.

Over the years I’ve learned, I’ve met a lot of people who have too much real estate but not enough liquidity. So I’ve always found great pleasure in helping people find access to capital. And a lot of people when they think capital, I’ve got to go to my bank, or I’ve got to go to my credit union or my lender.

There are so many sources for capital out there that most people don’t even know exist. And that’s kind of a market that I like to work in. Most recently, COVID was a great example. When everything tightened up a little bit, we were able to tap into some of the resources that we had that bought a lot of commercial real estate and financed a lot for us. So that’s just the benefit of experience and having done this. But that’s been my whole focus is, and I’m constantly out there seeking additional sources for capital to bring to my investors so I can

improve my

Michelle Kesil (03:32.748)
Yeah, that’s super important. yeah, what do you think has been the most valuable skill for your success in this industry?

Paul Anderson (03:46.816)
Listening. I think listening to your people’s needs. Like I said, as we were talking earlier, my thing is about finding opportunities where other people may not see it or kind of how to structure deals. But it really comes down to listening to what it is that they want and also what they need to make sure that you can put that together. So I was always told you have two ears and one mouth and I should use them proportionally. So my super skill is listening.

Michelle Kesil (04:15.97)
Yeah, that’s super important. yeah, mentioning that you’re able to find opportunities that most people maybe aren’t fully noticing. Can you share a story where you were able to find one of those?

Paul Anderson (04:31.904)
Sure, and I’ll probably preface all of that by saying it comes from an abundance mindset. So I know there’s more out there than I can handle and there’s going to be more tomorrow and the day thereafter. So you know I think of an opportunity recently where I was invited to work with a group who had visions of doing a development and unfortunately the way that that property and the way it was zoned everything around

they couldn’t find a way to get it done. Well, I fortunately have the benefit of having been here my whole life. I’ve done numerous things over my lifetime from city council hearings to planning and zoning meeting, greeting. And I got an idea to apply for a variance that would work. Something they had never even thought of. It wasn’t easy by any means. It took a lot of work, but we worked on that, guided them through the process. And as I mentioned earlier,

They were able to start vertical construction back in April on something that they just thought was closed off. They had a little bit of the vision, but they didn’t have the requisite knowledge to know how to pull it through.

Michelle Kesil (05:40.354)
Yeah, that’s really powerful. And what would you say has been the key to like keeping that running smoothly?

Paul Anderson (05:52.64)
Well I don’t know about running smoothly because every day is a little bit different. But I think just communication, staying on top of things with people, being direct, being to the point, letting them know exactly where they stand and working in the best faith of people. I really think there’s just something to that. I know that probably sounds a little altruistic but I think when you work in the best faith of people and their best graces, good things happen.

Michelle Kesil (06:21.208)
Yeah, that’s really important. Now, every operator I know has a moment when things got real. Maybe, deal went sideways, or you just had to pivot fast. Do you mind sharing a moment like that for you?

Paul Anderson (06:41.184)
Sure, and there have been several over the years and there will probably be more to come. It’s just the evolution of the market. I think back to probably 07, 08 when everything kind of really went sideways and I was involved in lending, I was involved in real estate, we were buying and rehabbing and fixing and flipping homes and doing all sorts of things.

Literally within a short period of time, I think about a six month window, the market just dried up. So we had a handful of properties. If I remember right, we had about seven properties, including the one we were living in and we were pretty highly leveraged. So part of that was being able to sell our primary residence, which didn’t go over well at home.

It was what saved us. And then getting creative during that time because properties really weren’t selling. So all of a sudden, we were taking.

flip homes and we were turning them into rentals. Some of them we rented by the room so we kind of started a little bit of a, I don’t want to say Airbnb, but we were doing like three and six month rentals per room so that way we would always have some revenue coming out and never be 100 % vacant. And then we started aligning with some different groups that did like transitional housing for people.

out of drug rehab or out of prison and getting involved with some of the contracts on that which actually turned out to be highly lucrative during a bad time but in the moment I never would have envisioned myself doing that but just had to get creative and solve a problem.

Michelle Kesil (08:20.738)
Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about often.

Paul Anderson (08:25.221)
Hopefully nobody ever has to go through it but you’ll if you do you will get through it.

Michelle Kesil (08:30.25)
Yeah, it’s important to share so people know that they’re not the only ones that may be facing these situations. Yeah, so let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling to next? Like what’s that next real goal for you?

Paul Anderson (08:38.048)
Absolutely.

Paul Anderson (08:53.056)
You know, I think the constant solve is trying to figure out what the markets are going to do so I can make sure that we’re positioned in a way to bring maximum value to our clients and investors. So I think that is paramount every day. that can change. Like I said last week, the first six months of the year, everybody was kind of on edge on what they were going to do. And now that the tax bill has been signed into law, Monday, things started to move again. And so understanding how even the political side of the business can change things.

I think the biggest thing I’m working on scaling right now is just the commercial growth. I don’t think we’ve mentioned, I’m in Boise, Idaho. We are one of the fastest growing metros in the country. The crazy part and where it has presented challenges for me being a local native, so much that is coming in is from out of the area. So I don’t necessarily have those contacts.

Big part of what I’m doing now, either through podcast, social networking, is trying to grow my scope and my scale outside of my backyard and be able to capture that because somehow, some way, the land that they end up building on, the contractors they end up using, I know them, I know of them, I have a relationship, but I don’t know the people bringing the project. So that’s a big area of focus for me.

Michelle Kesil (10:08.706)
Yeah, and what are some tools or networking ways that you’re connecting with these other people?

Paul Anderson (10:17.318)
so in the last couple of years and COVID was probably a great precursor to this with Zoom and going online and doing exactly what we’re doing now. more podcasting to get reach. I’m involved with a lot of professional groups.

commercial real estate, the development, the commercial leasing side that meet and their national groups. So a lot of my days I get up really early to make the East Coast meetings and then usually I’m working through dinner for the West Coast meetings because I’m right in the middle of it. So really just utilizing the tools that we have and the technology that we have now to get myself in the best room possible.

Michelle Kesil (10:59.468)
Absolutely. And yeah, a lot of people listening to this are early in their journey or looking to level up. I know I just asked you a similar question, but just expanding deeper into this, what has made the biggest difference for you when it comes to building relationships and just growing your network as a whole?

Paul Anderson (11:22.868)
You know, I think it’s probably it’s appreciating the time with people and I’ll be very honest with you, Michelle, when I was younger I didn’t quite get it. As you get a little bit older and the road in front of you get shorter and the road behind you gets longer, it’s just the value of people.

You know, I think everybody has something positive to add in them and the better people you have in the life, the better life you’ll have. I mean, there’s that saying your net worth is pretty representative of the five people you spend the most time with. So make sure that you’re in front of great people and not just not just productive people or people who are doing amazing things, but true quality people all the way through. So to me, I really truly believe that that in that saying and your sphere is so important. So it’s spending quality time with good people because

Probably, I would say, two of the biggest people that I worked with regularly. One of them I went to high school with, so I’ve known since I was 15. The other one, I started working with him almost 20 years ago, and we’ve gotten to know each other, so we know each other’s families. We really connect deeper.

Michelle Kesil (12:37.132)
Yeah, you can’t pick that. Relationships are everything in this space.

Paul Anderson (12:41.894)
that in communication.

Michelle Kesil (12:44.054)
Yeah, yeah, is there any way that you feel people can improve their communication skills in order to grow in this space?

Paul Anderson (12:54.08)
Absolutely, you know the one thing is this business probably isn’t for the faint of heart.

We have to deal with some uncomfortable things. So I always say it’s probably best to get comfortable being uncomfortable most of the time, because that will become your new comfort zone. But I think it’s the ability to communicate tough stuff and do it quickly, but try to come with a solution. As we talked earlier, I will have stuff come to me that is outside of my scope and I can’t do it, but I appreciate the opportunity of being presented with it. And I will talk to that client and I will try

try to find them a resource to help them. The other side of that is when you have a transaction and it’s not going well or you’ve run into something, to me personally, I think the best thing you can do is analyze what went wrong or where you’re off the tracks, see if you can get it on the tracks, and if you can, when you have to the client, present them that solution or hopefully solutions, and if you can’t, then you need to let them know quickly so they can move on.

Nobody can do all deals. Nobody bats $1,000 in this business. So the sooner you can identify that you’re not able to do a deal.

You owe it to your client, to the sellers of that property. You owe it to all parties because you don’t want to be the weak link in the chain. And you don’t want to prevent somebody from getting opportunities. So I think I always say a phrase I picked up from my daughter’s kindergarten teacher 20-something years ago. Eat the big green slimy frog first thing in the morning. Deal with the bad stuff first. And it also relieves you of that pressure. And you can get on with your day.

Michelle Kesil (14:34.168)
Yeah, I think that’s super valuable. Awesome. So before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or just learn more about what you’re doing, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Paul Anderson (14:51.968)
So I would say I’m a big phone guy. when we talk about communication, that’s one thing that drives me nuts. People who don’t return phone calls, they only want to text and email. So they can call me. I don’t know if you’ll post my number, but I will certainly give it to you. It’s Errico 208-794-2830. You can go to my website, verticalfundingcapital.com. You can check that out. You can reach me through there.

or you can just simply email me. I’m BoiseLender at gmail.com. And Boise spelled B-O-I-S-E.

Michelle Kesil (15:27.374)
Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it in the right way. So thank you for being here.

Paul Anderson (15:30.528)
Thank you.

Paul Anderson (15:39.056)
Absolutely, and there are a lot of great people in our space. I am fortunate to work with a lot of amazing people.

Michelle Kesil (15:44.91)
Absolutely. yeah, for those of you that are tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Paul who are out here building real businesses. And we’ll see you all on the next episode.