Why Raising Capital Is the Key to Scaling Commercial Real Estate Fast

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (00:00)
I mean savings is the answer to whatever you can do in life and there is no alternate word to savings. I one has to save a good amount.

With my savings, I was able to achieve $25 million asset under my portfolio, my management, AUM. But right now, and the fact is I came with $700 to America and now I’m a $75 million AUM. The remaining 50 million I was able to raise.

from outside capital. And that’s when I realized if I try to do everything myself with my own capital, I can reach so far. If I have to really scale it ⁓ in short period of time, the best way is to raise capital and ⁓ have your investor invest in you and you take care of them to the best of your ability.

Michelle Kesil (02:34)
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, Manish Pushye who is a real estate investor in Phoenix, focusing on commercial deals. So, excited to have you here today, Manish.

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (02:55)
Hey, Michelle, nice to meet you and thanks for having me.

Michelle Kesil (02:59)
Of course, let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (03:07)
Yeah, Michelle, I’ve been doing real estate investment for last 15 to 20 years. I’ve been in business, all kinds of businesses from

to distribution to retail to wholesale to gas stations to, you know,

convenience stores, you name it, I have done all. ⁓ Because as an immigrant, when you come ⁓ and I came during a dot, you know, Y2K era and I came on a Y2K workplaces and then the Y2K turned out to be dead. It was the way it was hyped, that didn’t happen. So I was laid off and ⁓ now I had two choices, either to go back to India or

or continue and do my best. I end up working in the malls and shopping plazas, you know, in different businesses, in retail, wholesale and all that. At one point I had 28 different kiosks in different malls in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah. And I was living in Texas at the moment in Dallas. And…

I did not know that 28 chaos that I own at one point will help me shape what I am today. So whatever happens in life, ⁓ you don’t realize it then, but it’s shaping you up for something in future, something big in future and that would happen. ⁓ Now I’m doing multi businesses thanks to that 28 chaos guy used to own at one point in different shopping plazas. ⁓

I mean, I came out of that business because Amazon came into picture and they were selling things for cheap. You Amazon really

ruined so many businesses. ⁓ But that really shaped me up.

for what I’m doing today I own several shopping plazas ⁓ and businesses I own six liquor stores ⁓ as well as laundromat businesses and ⁓ RV boat storage and other businesses and I’m able to do all that because when I came I was able to have multiple ⁓ structure multiple businesses at one point you know

So people ask me how you are able to do these many or how you are to come up with the capital and all that. I tell them the one word answer is savings.

mean savings is the answer to whatever you can do in life and there is no alternate word to savings. I one has to save a good amount.

With my savings, I was able to achieve $25 million asset under my portfolio, my management, AUM. But right now, and the fact is I came with $700 to America and now I’m a $75 million AUM. The remaining 50 million I was able to raise.

from outside capital. And that’s when I realized if I try to do everything myself with my own capital, I can reach so far. If I have to really scale it ⁓ in short period of time, the best way is to raise capital and ⁓ have your investor invest in you and you take care of them to the best of your ability.

Michelle Kesil (07:40)
Yeah, amazing. So what do you feel have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to grow and run successfully?

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (07:49)
Your workforce is the most

criteria in your business. My workforce, at least I can say that for myself. ⁓ I have 70 plus employees working with me right now. And they are the reason I am expanding the way I am expanding at the moment, like with full force. Because I see the drive, I see ⁓ what they want out of life.

and that’s keeping me up and running. ⁓ There are few employees who doesn’t care and they don’t align with your vision, but there are certain employees who are so much focused and aligned with your vision to the point that they

really keep you on your toes to the point that you have to grow for their sake. ⁓ So my employees are my biggest asset and biggest motivation. ⁓ Yeah, that’s a key point. And then second thing is what I have considered is your word should be your bond. If you have told your investors that

how you are going to be paying them, the distributions and all ⁓ the upside of your deal. I mean there were times I have paid my investors.

what we have discussed out of my other businesses which have nothing to do with, ⁓ you know, just to keep my word and just to show them that I value ⁓ what I told them, you know. So ⁓ your word should be your bond to the point if you have to take care of them from whatever way you should.

And it happened several times that in my case, I paid my investors even though they should be paid from that particular business was not either stabilized or did not.

get to the point where I could pay them, but I did pay them because that was what we initially agreed upon.

So those things really matters. mean, in long run, people are seeing what you are doing and whether you’re a man of your word or not.

Michelle Kesil (10:48)
Absolutely. And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (10:57)
So I’m trying to get to the point where it’s autopilot. ⁓ Most of my businesses are autopilot at the moment. Like I’m with you shows I’m not needed or required anywhere and it’s making me money, right? But I’m still not convinced I want it to be all my businesses to be at the point where

If I don’t show up for six months, it’s still making me even more ⁓ money or more revenue. ⁓ So that’s what I’m focused on. We are talking to vendors on regular basis.

⁓ for review collection from customers. Reviews are the name of the game nowadays in every business. If your reviews are ⁓ close to five star, ⁓ that really brings you the traffic.

And that’s what we are focused on. And I’m a freak. I’m an SEO guy. I on my free time, I work on my listings on my GMB Google ⁓ profile, you know, and try to bring as much content as possible using AI and all those new fun stuff to deal with to make it more attractive and to bring more traffic, foot traffic to my business.

as much as possible. So those are the things I am very concerned about all the time. How to increase more foot traffic to my businesses and how to keep my employees happy and content and keep going forward.

Michelle Kesil (12:46)
Yeah, absolutely. And are there any opportunities or goals that you have, things that you’re working on that you are excited about?

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (12:56)
So as I mentioned earlier, I have a $250 million worth of deals in my pipeline and I’m working on the deal right now that I’m focused on is HV board storage here in Arizona, one in Surprise, one in Peoria. I’m trying to close that in next week or so, hopefully. ⁓ Everything is in place, the lending.

The seller everyone and the due diligence is where we are right now. We are doing it thoroughly and that’s a forty three point seven five million dollar deal and Right now we have funding in place. The good thing is the guy who’s selling us these two He has a friend who got three more ⁓ and fully occupied ⁓ similar Hvr we storages

and he said if we close this successfully I can hook you up with my friend and he got three and he wanted an exit as well. So that’s what we are working on and there are as I said we don’t go beyond 70 75 mile radius of where I live and my employees live. So we are focused in Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria and Scottsdale.

Gilbert Chandler, Buckeye or know, cities, Maricopa County basically is where we are focused on and we are closing deals now on monthly basis. ⁓ So we are excited. We are super pumped up.

Michelle Kesil (14:33)
amazing. And I know you focus on like commercial assets and what are the typical types of investments that you usually are going for.

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (14:46)
We do shopping plazas, strip centers ⁓ and we try not to have a big anchor in that plaza because if he or that particular tenant leaves then it really leaves you with a big void like you have to

So we go for a mid-size

strip centers or shopping plazas where there are mom and

tenants and they have been there for years and we know that they are not going anywhere because they have to survive and they have to make their living so 10 to 30 tenant spaces is what we are looking for even five i have a plaza with five tenants ⁓ so it all depends ⁓

So strip center is one of our niche. We are very excited to do all the time shopping plaza strip centers and ⁓ the next niche is industrial warehouses. ⁓

That’s again, TripleNet. So TripleNet is the name of the game where you don’t have to worry about the maintenance, you don’t have to worry about taxes, you don’t have to worry about any of HOA expense, all that comes from your tenant pocket. Even the holiday lights and decorations, we charge them, our tenants, we don’t put even a penny out of. So…

you just collect the rents and that’s the kind of properties we invest in so industrial warehouses is the triple net and shopping plazas and ⁓ hv boats rv boat storage is now a new passion we are looking to acquire because it’s less headache and ⁓ it’s only one employee based business

So yeah, that’s another niche. Then hotels, we do primarily if it has some value add to it, such as convention center. If there is a convention center, a big convention center in that hotel or a ballroom, then we acquire those properties because now post COVID people are doing a lot of parties and lot of events, a lot of meetups and that ballroom or convention center.

add value and it’s not you are just relying on a hotel ⁓ revenue you have additional liquor and bow room or convention center revenue being you know added and then we go for those properties otherwise we stick to shopping plazas rv boat storages and any profitable business that’s doing phenomenal like we own

liquor stores ⁓ and it’s been doing good.

Michelle Kesil (18:18)
Yeah, amazing. What have been some challenges or obstacles that you’ve overcome in this journey?

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (18:27)
There’s always an obstacle and challenges in any business or in anybody’s life. ⁓ How you react to those challenges is what ⁓ I’m all about. Whether I take the defeat and move on to the next thing or I just give that challenge some time to shape up and show how exactly

It’s going to be turning around. Sometimes I have seen the challenges that seem very big in the beginning turn out to be nothing in long run. You know, and there are times when you take something very easy and you think it’s going to be piece of cake and turn out to be a major obstacle. So life is really ⁓ strange.

when it comes to the challenges and obstacles. ⁓ In real estate, my biggest obstacle in the beginning was capital raising. You know, when I started the farm, I was not able to raise capital the way it should be. And there were a few other friends in the similar space, they were raising capital left and right. So I was always concerned, like, where am I going wrong? No, it’s not.

right or wrong, it’s about experience. When people see you taking care of one or two investors, they become your PR, they become your biggest loudspeaker and they bring you more people with a word of mouth. So when I see other groups raising capital, they are at the point where they have ⁓

taken care of their existing customer base or investor base to the point their investors are sending them more leads. So that’s the only difference. You start working with one or two investors, then they become your biggest PR and they bring you more clientele. And until then, you know, try to do what the best you can do, but capital raising in today’s environment, especially.

It’s been really tough. People are not like they don’t want to invest, but they are kind of skeptical about economic changes and the economic environment we are living in. are like, it’s better to hold on to your funds than let it go and then never see back or never, you know, the way the economic climate is. So that’s my biggest challenge, capital raising. But again,

Um, it came as a challenge, but then in the process I end up working with foreign investors. And then I ended up opening a reggae, which is meant to raise capital from foreign investors. And I find a lot of fun and a lot of ease doing business with foreign investors than domestic. So I pivoted myself raising capital from them and.

That would never have happened if I was not going through the challenges of raising capital domestically. So what I’m trying to say is ⁓ keep doing what you’re doing in the process. Your ways are start carving out in your favor.

Michelle Kesil (21:47)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing.

Well, before we begin to wrap up here, someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you?

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (21:57)
So Michelle, can reach out, anybody can reach out to me. I’m very active on LinkedIn, Manish Pushye or Awesome ROI. My company name is not that, you know, in fact, I’m already having an offer for my domain, AwesomeROI.com on GoDaddy for almost 50 to $60,000 right now and I’m not accepting it.

Looks like one good decision I have taken is keeping a very attractive name, ⁓ Awesome ROI. ⁓ So it’s not difficult. They can Google Awesome ROI and they can get hold of me or otherwise they can send me email to
[email protected] as well as if they go to my website, they can find the contact info or they can schedule. ⁓

there is a calendar link they can schedule a meeting with me or as I said I’m active on Insta I’m active on LinkedIn ⁓ Awesome ROI on everywhere and they can get hold of me

Michelle Kesil (23:05)
Perfect, we’ll appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Manish Pushye @ AwesomeROI.US (23:08)
Hey, thank you, Michelle.

Michelle Kesil (23:10)
Yes, and for the listeners, tuning in if you got value, make sure you have subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Manish who are building real businesses. And see you on the next episode.