We are excited to share with you the latest episode of our podcast, “Raising Private Money with Jay Conner.” In this episode, Jay Conner sits down with real estate expert Daniel Angel-Mejia to discuss his remarkable journey from flipping houses to multifamily investing.
Daniel Angel-Mejia, the head of the finance management team at Apex Investments, has over 10 years of experience in real estate development and investment. With a strong focus on strategic planning, financial structuring, and portfolio analysis, Daniel and his team have successfully raised over $20,000,000 in private money for their multifamily ventures.
During the episode, Daniel shares valuable insights and lessons learned from his experience in raising private money. He highlights the importance of building a track record, maintaining transparency, and underwriting deals conservatively. He also delves into the unique proposition of Apex Investments and how they provide opportunities for individuals to passively invest in multifamily properties and achieve high rates of return safely and securely.
If you have been considering getting involved in real estate investing but are unsure how to raise private money without asking friends and family, this episode is a must-listen. Daniel’s and Jay’s expertise makes for an informative discussion. You’ll gain insights into the world of multifamily investing and learn tips and strategies that can help you maximize your returns!
Timestamps:
0:01 – Raising Private Money Without Asking For It
1:57 – Daniel Angel-Mejia, Turndown By Banks, Discovers Private Money
7:45 – Raising Private Is All About Putting On Your Teacher Hat
10:46 – From Flipping Houses To Multi-Family Investing
12:57 – https://www.ApexInvestments.us
17:24 – Advantages Of Investing In https://www.ApexInvestments.us
19:14 – Always Be Prepared For The Unexpected
21:14 – Liquid Investments And Retirement Funds
24:03 – Passionate And Result-Driven
24:27 – Secret To My Success: I Am A Problem-Solver & Persistent
26:22 – Trust Yourself!
26:52 – Connect with Daniel Angel-Mejia: dangel@apexinvestments.us
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How to Generate High Returns in Multifamily Investing Uncovered with Daniel Angel-Mejia and Jay Conner
Jay Conner [00:00:02]:
Welcome to another amazing episode of Raising Private Money with Jay Conner. And I’m Jay Conner, the Private Money authority, also your host. And this is the show where we talk about raising Private Money without asking a king for money. Well, my guest today knows all about that. First of all, he’s the head of the finance management team and his funding team, with, over 10 years of experience in real estate development and investment across all kinds of diverse asset classes. He supervises his firm’s capital generation, fund, and investor relations strategy. Now my guest expertise lies in the following. First of all, He knows how to strategic plan.
Jay Conner [00:00:52]:
We’re gonna dive into that. He knows about financial structuring. He knows how to port to how to analyze a portfolio and overall strategy implementation. What does this mean to you? How do you get high rates of return safely and securely? Well, my guest’s strong focus contributes to our continuous success and drives their mission to maximize returns for people like you, their valued investors. In just a moment, you’re going to meet my special guest, Daniel Angel Mejia, right after this.
Narrator [00:01:29]:
If you’re a real estate investor and are wondering how to raise and leverage Private Money to make more profit on every deal, Then you’re in the right place. On raising Private Money, we’ll speak with new and seasoned investors to dissect their deals and the best tips and strategies to help you get the money because the money comes first. Now here’s your host, Jay Conner.
Jay Conner [00:01:56]:
Well, hello, Daniel, and welcome to the show.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:01:59]:
Hey, Jay. How are you? Thanks for having me.
Jay Conner [00:02:02]:
I am doing fantastic. How are things in Atlanta, Georgia today?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:02:07]:
Doing, doing great sunny days. Starting to feel the the fall season coming in. Awesome.
Jay Conner [00:02:14]:
Well, you know, this is the Raising Private Money show. And so we only start with our guests talking about how it is our guests have gone about raising Private Money, what lessons you’ve learned about how not to do it, and What the best way to raise Private Money for your real estate deals. And what I’ve discovered, Daniel is most people have raised a lot of Private Money, And I see in the questionnaire where you have raised over $20,000,000 in your career in Private Money. Bear in mind, we’ve got a lot of listeners here to the show that haven’t even raised any Private Money yet. Right? And so I’ve discovered that Typically, with all of our guests, there is a story. There is something that happened in your career in real estate that triggered you to go raise Private Money. Tell us the story. How did your journey of raising Private Money begin?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:03:13]:
Of course, Jay. And thanks for, bringing that up. I think the very short answer to that is, in our case, scale. But it all started, when I started flipping homes, single-family homes with my equity, you know, and as I had a corporate job, so this was more like a side gig, as they say. Always wanted to to learn about the local market and, the local, activities within the single-family world. And, you know, 1 house brought another 1 and 23 until I ran out of my equity. But, business seemed to be going pretty well, and as you mentioned, the need of going out and raising some equity, came in. At the time, it was more a friends and family approach, but at the end of the day, it was, to, I guess, Keep supporting that initial thesis, and, proving that concept of how that flipping, house business, started, with with some equity from third parties.
Jay Conner [00:04:27]:
So you were using your equity. You were using your own, Leverage and your investment capital, was there a stage in your investment journey where you went to a traditional bank to borrow money? And for some reason, you didn’t, and then you moved over to Private Money, or Were the commercial banks ever involved in your journey?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:04:49]:
Okay. Yeah. And thanks for bringing that up. Obviously, yeah. I guess, thanks to my corporate career and my experience, I had been structuring larger deals and other investment funds As, you know, part of my job, back in Colombia when I used to work for a couple of, investment, funds. So I knew how to stack a deal if, you know, per se. So in that in that regard, even in my early stages, I did Go to, local banks who clearly and quickly said not interested. And then, fast enough, I, got into the Private Money for, you know, for the loan portion of each one of these deals even at early stages, to try to, I guess, make efficient those structures even in that single-family world.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:05:45]:
So it was pretty early on when I started using Private Money as commercial loans.
Jay Conner [00:05:53]:
So when you started raising Private Money, what is a lesson or some lessons that you’ve learned, over the years? What are some of your favorite ways to raise Private Money and how to go about it?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:06:07]:
Yeah. Of course. I think, there’s I would break that into 2 spaces like a, you know, the debt or the loan portion Is, as as we say now at Apex, you know, that that’s our our our main partners are the lender. That’s a little bit easier to make work just because they’re used to it. And as long as you have proper underwriting, it’ll usually flow pretty well. The equity portion is where it’s a little bit more tricky and a little bit more challenging, and at least in our experience and based on what we’ve, you know, shared it with other colleagues in the industry. But one of the main things is just making sure You have proper underwriting and stay true to your numbers. And then second, I think this is Making sure that you can build that track record as you go.
Jay Conner [00:07:05]:
So As you have been going down your journey of raising Private Money for your different projects, what’s the lesson you’ve learned as to how not to raise it? What’s a mistake you made on, like, yeah, I shouldn’t do that again?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:07:23]:
Getting too excited with the deal, and and just, stretching the numbers, you know, too much. You know, even if you’re talking to experienced or not experienced institutional or, you know, individuals, once the numbers are too good to be true, that’s not a safe route.
Jay Conner [00:07:44]:
Absolutely. Well, You know, one thing that we talk about here on the show all the time is how we go about raising Private Money we don’t ever ask for any money. We don’t sell. We don’t chase. We don’t beg. We don’t try to talk to anybody about anything. We don’t pitch deals. And how we go about doing it is by educating.
Jay Conner [00:08:06]:
We put on what I call my Private Money teacher hat, And we teach people I’ve got 47 individuals who are investing in our deals now, and we put on our teacher hat, And we teach people what Private Money is all about before we even get into any deals. You know, desperation has got a smell. I’ve discovered over the years, Daniel, that the worst time to be, looking to raise money is when you need it for a particular project, you’re running out of time and you have a deadline. Would you agree to that?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:08:38]:
Absolutely. That’s right.
Jay Conner [00:08:41]:
So how do you mitigate that?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:08:45]:
I think in our case, it’s it’s very similar. We’ve been transitioning from a more, you know, friends and family kinda like environment towards a little bit more family office and institutional world Where conversations and approaches are different going at initial stages, just going to friends and family is a lot easier. The conversation is just, you know, pretty straightforward. As long as you’re, you know, you’ve been doing well and you have some track record, it’s quite easy to, I guess, raise that kind of equity, once you start getting into more, I guess, in institutional investors or even Not so close to you or your close circle. It’s a lot more important to rely on the numbers and facts. As you mentioned, we’ve also started to educate, share our stories, and share our experiences, whether they’re good, bad, or ugly. Whatever it is, just, you know, stay humble and stay transparent, as every deal and every experience comes, And be open enough to share, you know, with anyone interested.
Jay Conner [00:09:55]:
Well, and you make an important point there. And that is, You know when I’m hearing somebody talk about their business, if I don’t hear any of the ugly stories, then I’m questioning, Are they telling me the whole story and are they telling the truth? Would you agree with that?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:10:11]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Especially in this in this industry. I’ve I I’ve been involved in other kinds of industries, but this one is the one I’ve spent most of my, career. And, it’s an industry where A lot of things happen. Good, bad, ugly. A lot of things that experience will allow you to anticipate or at least be prepared for.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:10:33]:
But, you know, as you mentioned, like, if there’s a story where there’s nowhere there are no negatives, then it’s probably not a true story.
Jay Conner [00:10:43]:
Exactly. So, you’ve raised a lot of Private Money. You’ve moved primarily from the single-family to the multifamily space. And you mentioned family offices. Moving on to family offices from, say individual friends and family. Just to make sure, tell our audience, what is a family office, and where do you find them?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:11:11]:
The second question is the hardest, I think, where to find them. You know, there’s a lot of net networking involved in this business, at least in our experience. In our case, both my business, we were originally born and raised in Colombia. So we’re both foreigners in the States, and they’re starting, you know, to build our career and our experience and track record in the States. So it’s always a little bit harder because there’s no close, community starting. It’s something you need to build From scratch, at least it’s been our experience. Speaking about family offices, it’s, you know, it’s usually either equity or wealth from a family, as its name says, managed by either a professional group or someone from the family, and they’re usually, looking for certain types of investments usually In in, I guess, trying to diversify whatever their, portfolio is. In some instances, some groups manage multiple, I guess, Equities for multiple families, so those are called or named multifamily offices.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:12:31]:
In our experience, it’s been more like attending events or just networking, and building those relationships From scratch once again, just because it’s usually a lot, relationship is driven, and trust And into these relationships until they’re they feel comfortable enough to pull the trigger in a in a deal with you.
Jay Conner [00:12:54]:
Absolutely. Well, you have got a fund, and the name of your company is Apex Investments, dotus. I wanna go ahead and put that URL out to everybody. www.ApexInvestments.us. So tell us about apexinvestments.us. What’s that all about?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:13:19]:
Of course. And thanks, Steve, for bringing it up and, for sharing our our website. I guess, Apex today is a platform, form, where we structure acquisitions, multifamily acquisitions. We’re mainly focused on multifamily. We’re based in Atlanta, and so far, all our investments have been here, in metro Atlanta. We like to be, you know, boots on the ground, close to the asset. You know, wherever we go, we like to understand, know the market, and be as close as possible to the asset. And what we’re, you know, looking for is for, multifamily properties that have some kind of value add opportunity.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:14:06]:
Value add means anything where you can, do some kind of renovation, whether it is interior or exterior or both, To increase rents and improve cash flow, that’s essentially what we’re solving for to obtain, returns And force that appreciation of the asset. We’re usually holding for 5 years. 5 to 7 years is what we structure for, And, you know, we raise equity from either retail investors or institutional to drive along these, Execution or, I guess, business plans for for the multi families. We come from a single-family space. That’s where we started. As I mentioned before, early on, doing street flipping and then putting all our experience from past experiences, corporate experiences, and our single-family experience, to work and transition from that single-family space into the multifamily world, and that’s where we are right now.
Jay Conner [00:15:09]:
Excellent. Well, I was going to ask you if you were doing any new bills right now, or if it’s all about Finding a good deal on a, perhaps somewhat distressed, multifamily apartment complex and turning it around, getting ritzed up, doing a value-add, making it nicer. Is that right?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:15:30]:
Right. And that’s a really good question. We do have some new construction, but it’s mainly on the single-family space. Pretty much what we bring from that single-family experience. We do some of that, but our bread and butter and Main, focus is acquiring existing property in the multifamily space, And as you mentioned, to execute a value-added program where we usually acquire eighties vintage. So Anything built in the eighties and sooner or more recent, where we see there’s, some distress in rents And the opportunity to, via renovations, improve that component and, professionalize management to improve performance.
Jay Conner [00:16:24]:
That makes a lot of sense. So really, am I understanding correctly that Apex Investments is a platform where an individual or individuals can invest in your fund, and they can be a passive investor without having to go out there and do the work, but can just be a passive investor and get good returns? Right?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:16:48]:
Yeah. That’s right. And I think that’s one of the, Best characteristics of our of our company and our platform. I know there’s a lot of, folks doing similar, approaches that You know, like us, it’s always good. But that’s kinda like the main thing. If someone’s looking for passive investing because they’re either busy on there, you know, 9 to 5 or they’re, you know, past that, and they don’t wanna focus on the day-to-day operation of the real estate and just Delegate that all professional. That’s that’s pretty much our job.
Jay Conner [00:17:22]:
So what would you say Apex Investments, ‘ unique proposition is? In other words, what is it about your fund that might get an investor interested in somebody else’s fund?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:17:40]:
Of course. And that’s that’s, that’s very important. I think there are a few important traits there. One is that we’re vertically integrated. So even in the early stages, we’ve managed to have Everything except property management in-house, sourcing deals, underwriting, capital markets, asset management, and project management. When I say project management specifically is, like, the construction itself. We have our own, project management team and and, renovation team. So we have a lot more control over what we’re doing.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:18:17]:
We are, operating, and and acquiring in our city, in our town, so we’re close to the asset. We’re not out-of-state managers, which we found to be very important, especially when things don’t go as planned. And obviously, today’s market is one of those where you need to be specific on management.
Jay Conner [00:18:41]:
Hey, Daniel. I was gonna ask, do things ever go as planned?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:18:48]:
That’s, you know, we laugh, and it sounds like a joke, but it’s not a joke. We plan based on our experience and what we feel and think it’s gonna happen, but we need to be prepared for reality. It’s, it’s it’s usually close to what you, you know, what you, plan. But, if it’s going exactly as planned, I think I think it’s I would get more worried My bad.
Jay Conner [00:19:14]:
Exactly. Well, you know, and in my space, we talk about Murphy. And I know you know who Murphy is, and Murphy has his cousins and his relatives show up as well. But, you know, in our single-family house deals, Murphy always shows up, but That brings up a good point. Based on your, underwriting and your criteria on how you buy and how you do the numbers, We keep it super conservative to allow for Murphy the unexpected to show up. Right?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:19:46]:
Yeah. Exactly. And I and I think that’s, you know, understanding Murphy is not only him, but he’s he’s got a pretty big family. I think that’s that’s pretty important. Just just making sure you’re you’re conservative. You’re not too conservative so that you can do deals, but just making sure you’re not getting, you know, ahead of yourself and understanding, you know, the market. For example, Right now, like, whoever underwrites, at least that’s our opinion, whoever underwrites, you know, high rent growth, Even on primary markets, you know, it’s gonna be tough for the next, you know, probably, year or so. So just keeping it keeping it true and do not stretch the numbers too much.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:20:31]:
That’s always gonna keep, you sleep.
Jay Conner [00:20:36]:
Yeah. For sure. So when someone is investing, passively in Apex Investments dot us, Typically, how long would they be looking to invest?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:20:49]:
Yeah. Of course. So right now, we’re in the multifamily space. We’re still doing it, deal by deal. We haven’t officially launched a fund for multifamily. That’s something we used to Do in in single family. So for multifamily, we’re, structuring a 5 to 7-year hold usually.
Jay Conner [00:21:12]:
Alright. That makes sense. Do your investors have the ability, or the option to use not only liquid investment capital, but also invest, retirement funds they have moved over to, say, a self-directed IRA company?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:21:30]:
Yes. Absolutely. That’s what’s allowed and perfectly, You know, use we have a bunch of investors who use it that way. Whoever has it in has their retirement funds in a self-directed IRA, you know, it’s it’s perfectly fine.
Jay Conner [00:21:47]:
Sure. What’s your minimum investment for the passive investor?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:21:51]:
A 100,000 is what we usually have.
Jay Conner [00:21:53]:
Okay. I was gonna ask you and sort of that sort of starts the conversation. How would you describe your ideal client or what your average Client looks like who is investing with you?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:22:05]:
Right. You know, like, we found to have, like, some kind of Avatar, and it’s usually that, you know, very busy professional, successful, in in in our world, accredited investor. As you know, whoever Has a net worth of more than $1,000,000 is what the threshold kinda like dictates, but it’s usually someone who wants to have some kind of exposure, even someone or a family that wants to have some kind of exposure in real estate, but doesn’t have the time or the or is not willing to deal with the day to day operation of such.
Jay Conner [00:22:49]:
Yeah. That makes sense. Where would you say Apex Investments and your company is headed, and what’s your crystal ball say about the real estate market over the next year or 2?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:23:00]:
The crystal ball, I think it’s, you know, nobody’s had it, and I think this is the toughest time to try to have it. But, but, you know, we stay bullish on the market. I think we’re on a pretty good asset class given it’s residential. You know, the residential gaps there, it’ll be there for quite a while. Even with all these deliveries that we’re having in the southeast, there’s a lot of demand. There’s a lot of, you know, new residents moving into the southeast in general. So, like, These past 12 to 18 months have been a little bit rougher just because there’s that dislocation between sellers’ expectations and what Well, actually, buyers can make numbers work given higher interest rates. But, You know, we believe in the next 12 months, it’s something that should start correcting, and we should have a pretty interesting, Another probably ride for another few years.
Jay Conner [00:24:01]:
Gotcha. Alright. Are you ready for our lightning round of questions, Daniel?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:24:08]:
Of course.
Jay Conner [00:24:09]:
I heard you are. So here we go. You’re gonna know the answers to these. 1st lightning-round questions. If you could be known for just one thing, what would Daniel be known for?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:24:20]:
Being passionate and result-driven.
Jay Conner [00:24:24]:
Passionate and result-driven. Love it. What personal characteristic Do you have that you would say has been pivotal to your success?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:24:38]:
I’m a problem solver And, and persistent.
Jay Conner [00:24:44]:
Got it.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:24:45]:
And we found that to be pretty interesting along the way because you mentioned it. You need to be ready to pivot in this industry.
Jay Conner [00:24:53]:
Absolutely. Are you a reader? Do you enjoy reading books? I don’t mean fiction. I don’t mean nonfiction.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:25:01]:
I do. Yeah.
Jay Conner [00:25:02]:
Alright. Well, if you can only choose 1 book that had the biggest impact on your life, What is it?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:25:08]:
The most recent would be, Who Not How.
Jay Conner [00:25:11]:
Yes. Doctor Benjamin Hardy.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:25:15]:
Yes, sir.
Jay Conner [00:25:16]:
Excellent. Yeah. I like his new book that he just came out with a few months ago. So Here, let’s do something really fun, Daniel. So I got a stack of cards here. Right? So this is sort of like playing cards. I won’t do a card trick on you, But, anyway, you just tell me you just tell me when to stop. You tell me when to stop, and whenever you say stop
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:25:38]:
Stop.
Jay Conner [00:25:39]:
Oh, my lands. You’re fast, so we’ll follow up on the question. So here it is. If you could only take 1 CD or 1 audio For a cross-country road trip, which would you choose?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:25:54]:
Oh, just a song or
Jay Conner [00:25:57]:
Any audio? CD audio?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:26:02]:
Alright. I’ll I’ll make it American so it’s not it’s not too Latin American. But, you know what? I enjoy chicken fried.
Jay Conner [00:26:09]:
Chicken fried? I don’t even know what chicken fried is.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:26:11]:
Nope.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:26:15]:
I don’t have my cell phone with me. I’ll share that with you later.
Jay Conner [00:26:19]:
Okay. Well, I’ll have her check out chicken fried. And Dan if you can only repeat 1 quote, what 1 quote would you live by?
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:26:33]:
You know, it’s not it’s not a a well-known quote, but I keep repeating it. It’s just trust yourself.
Jay Conner [00:26:41]:
Listen to yourself. Absolutely. Well, Daniel, you have been an entertaining and very knowledgeable guest. I appreciate you coming on, And I’m gonna give you the final words.
Daniel Angel-Mejia [00:26:55]:
Jay, thank you so much for having me. It’s been a Pleasure to meet you and to share with your audience too. Thanks to everyone, for listening. And, if you guys are interested in learning more about Apex or anything that we can help With regarding, multifamily, please visit our website, www.ApexInvestments.us, Or just feel free to reach out, either my LinkedIn or my email, the dangel@apexinvestments.us.
Jay Conner [00:27:23]:
Awesome. And in the show notes, we’ll have all these links, for your contact information as well, Daniel. There you have it, my Friend, another amazing episode of Raising Private Money. I’m Jay Conner, the Private Money authority, your host here on the show, And be sure and subscribe and ring that bell if you’re watching on YouTube. If you happen to be listening on iTunes or Spotify, Be sure and follow. Here’s to taking your business to the next level, and we look forward to seeing you right here on the next episode of Raising Private Money.
Narrator [00:27:57]:
Are you feeling inspired by the knowledge you gained in this episode? Then head over to www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide. That’s www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide, and download your free guide that shares Seven Reasons Why Private Money will Skyrocket your real estate investing business right now. Again, that’s www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuideto get your free guide. We’ll see you next time on Raising Private Money with Jay Conner.