Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this conversation, Reggie St. Louis shares his journey as a real estate investor and entrepreneur, detailing how he transitioned from a technology background to leveraging AI in real estate. He discusses his first property deal, the lessons learned, and how AI can enhance deal flow and investment strategies. Reggie emphasizes the importance of understanding local markets and zoning laws, and he introduces his current projects involving AI tools designed to assist investors in finding and evaluating real estate opportunities.
Resources and Links from this show:
-
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Reggie St Louis (00:00)
most metro areas within 90 minutes to two hours have some county, some zip code, some state park, forest, beach, whatever.where this Airbnb or off-grid homestead or micro-resort vision could make sense. But the individual towns within those recreational regions can vary drastically. And so you might have 10 or 20 towns or zip codes in each of these areas around these metropolitan locations.
where you want to know what’s the zoning all at one time as a prerequisite to what you do next. And so that’s where my solutions start to come in.
Dylan Silver (02:19)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Reggie St. Louis is a real estate investor and entrepreneur from New Rochelle, New York. He developed a background in technology studying biomedical engineering at Harvard and Columbia before working at several successful startups. His current focus is helping investors deploy safe and scalable AI powered automations to accelerate deal flow. You can find him at regco.tech. Reggie, thanks for taking the time today.Reggie St Louis (02:44)
It’s pleasure to be here, good morning.Dylan Silver (02:47)
Now, I’d like to start by asking you how you got started in this space, utilizing AI to help investors. And we had talked before hopping on here, you mentioned it came out of a need yourself as an investor.Reggie St Louis (03:02)
Yeah. So my real estate journey starts right there in 2020. ⁓ Being ⁓ isolated in a one bedroom apartment, I sat down with a whiteboard and I kind of sketched out where I wanted to go with this, with bigger pockets and resources like that. They have all these spreadsheets and podcasts and forums, ⁓ ways of doing deal analysis that are awesome. ButAs I made my way into the space, I quickly realized that the dream of owning property and owning a piece of land and making a vision into reality has a lot of hiccups along the way. It’s not as simple as, I have the money, I get the deed, and I do what I want to do.
Dylan Silver (03:52)
Yeah, that’s certainly true. I mean, when we think about everything that is necessary from taking a deal from the cradle to the grave, if you haven’t done that process before, it can be somewhat startling. It can be like a wake up call because you realize one deal that may seem on paper relatively simple could have so many moving pieces along the way to where some real estate investors might say, if you’re going to do five or 10 doors, you might as well do 50 becauseat that economy of scale, can potentially afford some help. I want to get a little bit granular if we can and dive into the weeds. What type of deals, you mentioned 2020, what type of deals were you looking at? What area of the country were you looking at these deals in?
Reggie St Louis (04:37)
Yeah. So at that point, you know, I didn’t know much of anything. My grandfathers, both of them had owned a little bit of property. My mom tells a story about how every Easter, my grandfather used to take them out to Long Island to a piece of land that he owned. And they would just look at it. She didn’t know what they were doing there or why they were there. But that was something that he held on to and was a part of his assets that he was, youable to have as a part of the generational wealth that my family has enjoyed. And so just looking at that as a piece of inspiration, I kind of, like I said, was looking at everything from house hacking to house flipping with bigger pockets and other mentorships and trainings that I was a part of. But it really started for me when a realtor friend of mine approached me needing a bit of money to
finish his wholesale that had turned into a quick flip. Essentially, I guess he got this home under contract, but realized that all it needed to be turned around and put on the market was, I think like a radiator or a boiler or something. But what was interesting about that first property was, ⁓ we were there, we were interested in the home, a single family home, but it happened to be sitting on, I believe it was about five acres. And that was the first time that I had encountered
you know, a larger lot where you have the primary residence that does, you know, all that primary residences do in terms of, you know, shelter and lifestyle. But then that extra bonus, right? It’s not just having a pool. It’s not just having a garden. It’s it’s an entirely different expansive experience. And so that was the first thing that really opened my eyes to one, the returns that you can get. I lent him a private note on that deal and
and got a good quick return. But getting to set foot on that property really made some of the stories that I had heard a lot more tangible.
Dylan Silver (06:48)
Now after seeing that, you get into flipping yourself? Were you looking at doing some flips or did you go a different way with it?Reggie St Louis (06:58)
Yeah, so the next stage in my journey was really quite happenstance. I had made a connection with a realtor and done the whole thing where I specify what I’m looking for and get leads sent to my inbox. My coach for house flipping, a guy named Welby Asselli, he goes by atmybest917 on⁓ on social media and he had this very specific method that he directed us to follow. He wanted the realtors to send you the after repair value and send you the leads and kind of let you know what your maximum allowable offer was off the bat. I didn’t do that. What I did was I went to a tax deed auction.
And I initially just went there to learn. was, OK, let’s see what this is about. Seems like a special opportunity. And as I sat there in the audience and the properties went by, it seems like they were mostly being purchased by contractors and other people who were able to take advantage of economies of scale or other things to access those properties. So this small piece of land comes up, a quarter of an acre. And the opening bid is $100.
And so based on the area which was a little bit rural. I knew that it was worth more than $100 so I bid $100 and I don’t know what happened if people were distracted or waiting for the next lot It was pretty early in the auction. But next thing, you know, you know, the guy says sold to number 44. I was like, okay That’s interesting. So at $100 I ended up with this quarter acre
Dylan Silver (08:46)
HahahaReggie St Louis (08:53)
vacant property ⁓ and paid a couple of extra hundred dollars to settle the property taxes and the rest of the fees associated with the auction. But next thing I knew, this lot didn’t even have a real address, right? Trying to find it using GPS coordinates and stuff like that. ⁓ That was the beginning of my property ownership journey. And it was that point when I pulled up to this property that reality really set in about the difference betweenyou know, a piece of land and a buildable, accessible lot.
Dylan Silver (09:29)
Yeah, I mean, when we talk about that, there’s a lot that comes into that. There’s some risk as well. When you went to that plot of land, what did you end up finding there?Reggie St Louis (09:40)
So what I found was basically a right of way, a gravel path that led back behind a row of houses to this overgrown little patch of not much. There was a bunch of goldenrod and all kinds of interesting plants growing all over it. ⁓ But what I realized was,When it comes to zoning, there’s minimum lot sizes, right? And when you want to build a house, right? Or just, yeah, access and right of way, right? Not every piece of property has utilities available. Not every piece of property is going to let you put a tiny home on wheels or live in an RV, right? Or allow Airbnb. So all of these things that are so easy to think about and dream about.
And even when the property becomes very accessible, which can be a bit of a red flag, ⁓ there’s still that bridge left to cross. And so if it’s in an area where you don’t necessarily live or spend a lot of time, you kind of need all the reinforcements you can get to make sure that you’re making the right decision and moving as efficiently as possible in whatever market you decide to operate in.
Dylan Silver (11:04)
Yeah, I mean, that’s an interesting deal, right? Because you’re now thinking, well, what can I do with this? What did you end up doing with that plot of land?Reggie St Louis (11:45)
So when it comes to purchasing any property, if you’re looking to dispose of it, the easiest thing to do is to ask the neighbors. It just so happened that I had a very substantial commercial neighbor in a golf course and a casino. ⁓ And I had to just pick up the phone and basically just call the casino and be like, hey, I happen to own a small piece of land adjacent to your golf course.Would you guys be interested in purchasing it? There’s also an interesting through line there where it happens to be owned by the indigenous tribe in the area. regardless of your sensibilities, I feel like it was an interesting opportunity to kind of allow them to expand their ownership. There actually happened to be an interesting case with that tribe unrelated to my parcel.
But that Oneida tribe was trying to make the case previously that when they purchased land, it actually formally brings it back under their tribal territory, becomes a part of the reservation and things of that nature. That didn’t end up going through, but they were willing to pay me just about 10x on what I paid for that property in order to make it a part of their cohesive conglomerate owning whatever amount of land within the radius of that casino golf course facility.
That one worked out well for me. But I think because it was such a low barrier to entry, the other part of the equation for me that’s relevant is the ability to just enjoy the space, right? Given that it was a three figure investment, the fact that I was able to pull up there, you know, it was beautiful, right? The wide open skies, you know, all that you could want from a small piece of nature. The thinking that I did out there.
the envisioning, the saying, okay, I’ve taken step one and step two, let’s continue this real estate journey. The ideation, right? I brought a few people out there to discuss the vision and the future and what happens next. So to be able to have that as a physical backdrop. ⁓
In addition to the return that I happened to obtain on that, that’s a value that will continue to pay dividends throughout the decades of my
Dylan Silver (14:09)
Yeah, no question. And that first deal is always a learning experience. And so a lot of times people will say, you know, if you make money on that first deal, that’s great. You intend to. But, you know, there’s a lot of people who might go into a flip and it might not go in their favor, but it’s still ⁓ a paid learning experience. Now, the fact that you were able to 10X it, that’s pretty…incredible and then also to going to, you know, the neighbors effectively, the people who might potentially be interested in acquiring that land. Oftentimes people miss out on that step, but that is, you know, it should be, I think a lot of folks first stop when they’re dealing with a situation like a ⁓ parcel of land. I do want to pivot a bit here though, Reggie, and ask you, you know, when the AI automations started to come into play, how did you start incorporating that into your business? And then, ⁓
What are you doing with folks today to help them accelerate ⁓ their deal flow as well?
Reggie St Louis (15:06)
Yeah, definitely. ⁓ So, you know, as a trained engineer, AI really entered into my world about a decade ago when I first started learning how to code. When I took my introductory computer science class, that’s where they were discussing things like ⁓ computer vision, right? Handwriting detection. I remember these tedious assignments where they would give us all these photographs of handwritten digits and they’re like, okay, you’re going to teach the computer how to tellwhat handwriting is a one versus a two versus a three. And they taught us all the breakdowns and like, this is how the computer is thinking, but not really thinking. And it was, it was cool, right? It was a very interesting introduction. Fast forward to my graduate studies. It was just as I was taking a more advanced math course in data science that chat GPT came onto the market. It was, it was perfect timing. So I had a little bit of leverage and an advantage in that I kind of understood the mathematics behind it.
And I understood how it wasn’t really thinking. It’s all kind of probability at the end of the day. So while there were limitations and while there was caution, there was still obviously a lot of really good benefit. It was able to assist me with those high level technical things that I had going on, even at that stage. And so the next ⁓ project that I took on actually arose that next spring.
And that was an opportunity that I leveraged through what’s called a land liquidation event. There are these companies around the country, but also in New York where they have estates that they’re often looking to subdivide and sell off still fairly large acreage. And at that stage, right, early 2023, Chad GPT is not what it is now. But even then I was able to say, OK, well, help me figure this out.
right, help me plan out my vision. What the heck is going on in this small little town? Right, everybody’s always saying location, location, location, but just because I don’t know a location doesn’t mean that it’s not a good one. Right. And what AI does really, really well is that it’s good at pattern recognition. It’s good at, like I said, given a bunch of photos of handwritten numbers, you can figure out what those handwritten numbers mean. So
Similarly, given a bunch of good deals or successful projects or successful developments, it can figure out whether or not something might be worth a closer look. Now, over the years, we’ve seen AI get better and better and better and better. And so now,
it gets to the point where you don’t have to worry all the time about the AI making things up because you can feed it the specific information that it needs in order to be successful. Of course, you always have to do your own research and do your due diligence. But when it comes to aspects like zoning or planning, anything related to permitting, and even when it comes to pulling comps and doing a little bit of your pro formas,
AI can get you a lot further along the line with any one particular deal. But more importantly than that, it can allow you to survey a broader area. For example, when it comes to these patterns, one thing that I’ve realized is that
most metro areas within 90 minutes to two hours have some county, some zip code, some state park, forest, beach, whatever.
where this Airbnb or off-grid homestead or micro-resort vision could make sense. But the individual towns within those recreational regions can vary drastically. And so you might have 10 or 20 towns or zip codes in each of these areas around these metropolitan locations.
where you want to know what’s the zoning all at one time as a prerequisite to what you do next. And so that’s where my solutions start to come in.
That’s where if you know your vision as abstract as it may be, I can help you get down to the granular of the zip codes that are probably best for you, but then also exploring other aspects of feasibility. Does it have access? Are there utilities and things of that nature?
Dylan Silver (20:17)
Yeah.Reggie St Louis (20:22)
But all of that is pretty much doable with some tweaks to chat GPT and those major models that are outDylan Silver (20:22)
Yeah, I mean, when we-When we talk specifically about how even within a subset of a city or a town,
two streets over, you might be dealing with a different set of comps, right? And so that we run into this often, right? Which is, you know, let’s say you’re flipping homes, or let’s say you’re rehabbing and holding, right? And if you’re using comps, you know, just a handful of streets over within walking distance, that can be another
set of comps, right? Those might not be useful to where you’re at. And so, you know, a zip code or just the streets over can make a world of difference. That can be the difference between, you know, you having force improved your fix and flip beyond what the market warrants versus, you know, a successful flip that
you know, is sold within 30 days. And so just that small level of distance, you know, just a handful of blocks can really change, you know, the total outcome of the deal. And for folks who may not have as much granular knowledge of an area or, you know, maybe somewhat limited in terms of how much they’re willing or able to invest in understanding ⁓
each specific area of the city. Tools like this can be incredibly helpful and also save them a lot of heartache in the long run.
Reggie St Louis (21:57)
Absolutely. And this is also the aspect where you’re kind of taking some of that specialized knowledge and you’re able to package it and get a little bit more out of it. Right. You’re not going to be able to be on the phone with your realtor every hour of every day. But a lot of the benefits of a realtor and why it still can be useful to have a human in the loop is because they would usually embody that knowledge. Right. They would say, I know the town. I know the comps and things of that nature. However.You can get AI to begin to think like that. You can ask, well, what tend to be the subtleties in a town that might make a difference between this or that? know, people think schools, it’s pretty obvious. Proximity to shops and things like that, sure. But what if there’s something like, well, actually this part of the town is very hilly, right? So you might see some large acreage there, but it’s actually on such a steep grade that it’s hardly worth
being buildable, right? And again, these red flags can pop up. If you see something that’s like half the price per acre of other things in the area, you might think, this is a great opportunity. But again, there are subtleties like that, which can honestly be understood by these models that have done as much as read the Wikipedia page about a town, just to lower the barrier to entry, to get your foot in the door so that when you do have that conversation with the realtor.
Right. Once you’ve chosen out of all the wonderful counties that may be available for what you’re looking to do, you can step up to that conversation with a little bit more preparation and make your time with the realtor more efficient.
Dylan Silver (23:35)
We are coming up on time here, Reggie. Any new projects that you’re working on and then as well, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you?Reggie St Louis (23:43)
Yeah, absolutely. So what I have going on now is leveraging this new wave of AI agents. We’ve seen this wonderful ⁓ open-claw project where people are really taking things to the next level. And that’s where we’re at now. So what we do have is some quick guides for leveraging the AI tools that people can get a hold of. ⁓ And right now we are taking people on our wait list for this actual agent that will be able to go outand scrape the internet for deals on your behalf. ⁓ This isn’t something that we’re offering as a product as of yet. I would say it’s more of a service for us to help you build out on a personal basis what makes the most sense for your kind of deals, how to keep you safe and protected from a due diligence perspective on the deal side, but also from a cybersecurity perspective.
as we know that these new technologies sometimes don’t come with safety on them. So we want to make sure that we get that put in place for everybody.
Dylan Silver (24:46)
Reggie, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for taking the time today.Reggie St Louis (24:50)
All right, I appreciate it. Thank you, Dylan.
