TLP23: Communicating with Sponsors with Sarah May
Our guest, Sarah May, is an aerospace engineer. While working, she saved money with her husband and business partners. They bought a duplex, saved some more, and bought a triplex. They kept doing it until they had built a portfolio of properties. In 2016, she decided to change careers. She learned about syndication, joined an investment club, got a coach, and then started Regency Investment Group in the same year.
In this episode, Sarah discusses ways of finding great deals in the most unlikely places – like a diamond in the rough. She talks about her project, which required much work and value add but worked well in the end. Sarah emphasizes the importance of communication and gives tips on communicating effectively with sponsors. She also leaves some tips for the budding limited partners analyzing a deal.
Key Points from This Episode:
- Sarah is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Regency Investment Group.
- They focus on bringing passive investment opportunities to investors.
- Her real estate journey started in college when she went to a Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminar and heard about the concept of passive income.
- She worked as an aerospace engineer.
- In 2016, she decided to change careers and learned how to do syndications in real estate.
- Per Sarah, the market right now is solid in Denver, Colorado. Rent growth and occupancy have been high, and it’s a great time to be involved in the business.
- Sarah talks about one of her projects which was an old hotel that was converted to apartments and needed complete exterior and interior renovations.
- Most syndicators start with something more stabilized. Why did Sarah’s team choose that project that needed much work and value add?
- There are a lot of diamonds in the rough in real estate. You must get out there and look at the properties to find great deals.
- What’s the best way for limited partners to figure out if they will get good communications from their sponsor?
- How did Sarah communicate to their investors when Covit hit?
- Sarah leaves a few tips for the budding limited partners who are analyzing deals.
- What are the biggest mistakes or things LPs need to avoid?
Tweetables:
“That’s one of the things I love about the business, as you take the worst property on the block and then make it the place everyone wants to live. And the tenants are proud to live there now, excited to bring their friends over, you know, the community improves, because now instead of this eyesore property, now you have something that’s appealing and a nice home for people to live.” [00:06:31]
“One of the things we like to do when we have a new property is send out an email to all of our potential investors laying out the whole business plan and why we’re doing what we’re doing, and the financial projected returns for them, they choose to invest with us. And so, it really was just a matter of being very clear on our communications, and also setting the vision for the property.” [00:10:48]
“The communication, I think, is key and just making sure you set expectations, and everybody knows what the plan is for the property.” [00:11:55]
Links Mentioned
Regency Investment Group website
About Sarah May
Sarah is a managing partner for Regency Investment Group, where her focus is on identifying and acquiring multifamily properties with the goal of providing strong financial returns for Regency’s investors. Regency focuses exclusively on multifamily apartment communities in Colorado with a value-add component.
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