Syndication Investing and Why A Community Is So Important With Jim Pfeifer

Today's Guest: Jim Pfeifer

Jim Pfeifer is a Passive Real Estate Investor and Podcast Host. He focuses on helping like-minded individuals invest in real assets and financial strategies to accumulate sustainable wealth, minimize tax, and protect their assets while growing their wealth. Jim's goal is to constantly learn new ways to build wealth and share that information with investors to help them become better and profit from their deals.

Highlights From The Show:

We begin the episode with Jim sharing his background story and how he ended up in real estate. Jim shares he is an educator and stock investor turned into a passive investor. Jim started in the corporate world and quickly developed himself into a mentor. He then became a teacher and taught finance and accounting, but later transitioned to being a financial adviser. At the same time, he became an accidental landlord after buying a house and being unable to sell his current house because of the recession in 2008. Having another income stream as a landlord and figuring out that paper assets were not a great strategy inspired Jim into active investing. According to him, there is a difference between investing and speculation. Investing, whether active or passive, is buying real assets with a current benefit in the form of cash flow and upside appreciation, while speculation is buying stocks and mutual funds and hoping they increase in value to sell them someday at a higher price.

We then talk about how the Left Field Investors community and what they do. Jim shares that they are just a community focused on providing education and networking opportunities for people interested in becoming financially free through investing primarily in syndication deals. He shares that the community has everything, including people who are not accredited and looking to get into their first deal, to people who are accredited or in a 100th deal and have hundreds of dollars in passive income a month. According to Jim, to be a successful real estate syndication investor, you need a community and a network so that you can learn, leverage other people's expertise, find great sponsors and deals, and become a better investor. It’s hard to do it by yourself.

Next, we talk about the process of finding great sponsors as a beginner. Jim shares that his journey had three stages. When he heard about passive investing, the first thing Jim did was attend a syndication conference. In the seminar, he met some syndicators, and he figured out that if they were there, they were great, and he invested in some of the deals using his 401k. According to Jim, that was very ineffective. Even though not all the deals went sour, right now, he would not invest in such deals. The next step he took was to seek knowledge. He started listening to podcasts, reading books, and reaching out to syndicators from podcasts. This was not a bad strategy, but he didn’t know if they were great podcast guests, marketers, or operators. Most of the deals he did in this stage were good, but there are better ways. Jim shares that now, the only way he will invest with new sponsors is if they are introduced to him by someone he knows, likes, and trusts in the community and is already investing with them. Jim still does all the due diligence he would do for a sponsor he doesn’t know, but he’s often 100 steps ahead by starting from a place of trust.

Lastly, we talk about speculating vs. investing and the returns to expect if you want to get involved in syndications. Jim shares that most people are speculating, but they think they are investing. Speculating is buying a piece of paper and hoping it goes up in value while investing is based on investing in real assets with current benefits in the form of cash flow. He also shares that the best range for returns from syndication investments with all factors carved in is 6-10% cash returns annually, which can enable you to double your money every 5 to 10 years.

Make sure you don’t miss another amazing episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with Jim Pfeifer and get valuable information on syndication investing and why a community is so important!

Notable Quotes:

“Whether you’re an active or passive investor, you are buying a real asset that has a current benefit in the form of cash flow and upside appreciation.”

Jim Pfeifer

“To be a successful real estate syndication investor, you need a community and a network so that you can learn, leverage other people's expertise, and find great sponsors and deals.”

Jim Pfeifer

“You should feel no pressure to invest, and if you’re getting pressure from an operator, run.”

Jim Pfeifer

“You have to ensure you’re getting into the right deal because you cannot get out of it. If you get into a bad stock, you can sell it, but you're stuck when you get into bad syndication.”