In a recent episode of the “Raising Private Money” podcast, Jay Conner explores the fascinating world of real estate investments with special guest Ray Hightower. The episode sheds light on Ray’s journey of raising over $3,000,000 in private money for commercial real estate deals. This blog post will delve into the takeaway points from their discussion, focusing on Ray’s transition from the tech industry to real estate, his preferred asset class, and his effective methods for attracting private investors.
From Technology to Real Estate
Ray Hightower’s entry into real estate is both motivating and informative. His career began in the dynamic field of technology, where he held a degree in computer science and gained extensive experience working for Fortune 500 companies. He eventually founded and managed his technology company for over two decades. Upon achieving significant success, he sold his tech company and transitioned into multifamily real estate.
This career switch was driven by the potential for equity building and the unique advantages offered by real estate investments, including capital preservation, intrinsic land value, insurance protection, and steady cash flow from rent payments.
Why Multifamily Properties?
When asked about his choice of asset class, Ray prefers multifamily properties, particularly those in the 50 to 150-unit range. He appreciates various asset classes including single-family and retail spaces, although office properties pose challenges due to the shift towards remote work. Multifamily properties, however, are a more stable investment because people always need housing.
Focusing on properties with 50 to 150 units allows Ray to ensure professional management without facing direct competition from large private equity firms. This approach enables effective property management while pursuing valuable deals that larger entities might overlook.
Structuring Deals with Private Money
A critical part of the episode highlights how Ray structures his deals using private money. His approach involves limited partners (LPs) and general partners (GPs) within limited liability corporations (LLCs). Ray employs a 70%-30% ownership split between LPs and GPs.
Private investors are primarily looking for excellent stewardship of their investments, and Ray’s meticulous oversight ensures their money is managed carefully. He compares the investor’s journey to a scouting trip, emphasizing how crucial it is to ensure safety and improvement in property investments.
Attracting Private Money: Trust and Methodology
The discussion then moves to how important trust is in attracting private money. Jay highlights that private lenders often invest in the operator rather than the deal itself. Ray builds on this idea by outlining a four-step method he learned from his mentor, Hunter Thompson: attract, educate, nurture, and close.
**1. Attract:** Initial attention is garnered toward investment opportunities through effective networking, an online presence, and valuable content distribution.
**2. Educate:** Comprehensive information about the investment process and potential returns is provided to build credibility. Education enhances not only the learner’s knowledge but also boosts the educator’s standing.
**3. Nurture:** Developing strong relationships is essential. Continually adding value through education, connections, events, and podcasts builds trust, showing potential investors that their interests and finances are genuinely taken care of.
**4. Close:** If the steps of attraction, education, and nurturing are executed with a giving spirit, the final investment commitment often follows naturally, without direct solicitation.
The Power of Mindset in Building Partnerships
Towards the end of the episode, the conversation shifts to the importance of mindset in business partnerships. Ray underscores the significance of an abundance mindset, which helps individuals believe in endless opportunities and fruitful partnerships. Collaborating with others who complement one’s skills results in a stronger, more effective team.
Ray invites individuals with an abundance mindset to connect with him for potential partnerships and investments. He is keen to collaborate with both accredited and nonaccredited investors who align with his mission of acquiring multifamily properties.
Conclusion
Jay Conner concludes the episode by expressing gratitude to Ray Hightower for sharing his valuable insights. He encourages listeners to review the show on their preferred platforms. For those interested in diving deeper into private money in real estate investments, Jay offers a free guide available at https://www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide
Ray Hightower’s transition from technology to multifamily real estate and his strategic approach to attracting and managing private money provide invaluable lessons for both experienced and new investors. By focusing on trust, education, and nurturing relationships, securing private money becomes an achievable goal in real estate investments.
10 Discussion Questions Based on this Episode:
Transition from Technology to Real Estate:
How does Ray Hightower’s background in technology influence his approach to multifamily real estate investing, and what unique skill sets did he transfer from his tech career?
Asset Class Focus:
Why does Ray Hightower prefer multifamily properties, specifically 50 to 150-unit complexes, over other real estate asset classes?
Challenges in Office Real Estate:
Ray mentioned the challenges associated with office spaces due to the rise of remote work. How does this trend impact real estate investments, and what are potential strategies to add value to office properties?
Attracting Private Investors:
What are the key components of Ray’s four-step method (attract, educate, nurture, close) for bringing on private investors, and how have they proven effective in his experience?
Partnering with Investors:
How important is the concept of trust when it comes to attracting private investors, and what methods does Ray use to build and maintain that trust?
Mindset in Investment Partnerships:
How does an abundance mindset influence partnerships and business decisions in real estate investing according to Ray and Jay, and why is it essential?
Structuring Deals with Private Money:
What are the benefits and challenges of using private money structured through limited liability corporations (LLCs) with a 70%-30% ownership split between limited partners (LPs) and general partners (GPs)?
Capital Preservation and Cash Flow:
Ray talked about the importance of capital preservation and steady cash flow in real estate investments. Can you elaborate on how these factors contribute to the long-term success of an investment?
Educational Value for Investors:
In what ways does Ray Hightower emphasize the significance of educating potential investors, and how does this education process add value to both the investor and the project?
Natural Closing Process:
Both Ray and Jay discussed that if attraction, education, and nurturing are done correctly, the closing will happen naturally. Can you provide examples or scenarios where this method has worked without direct solicitation?
Fun facts that were revealed in the episode:
- Ray Hightower has successfully raised over $3,000,000 in private money for commercial real estate deals.
- He focuses primarily on 50 to 150-unit multifamily properties in Arizona, Tennessee, and Texas.
- Ray transitioned from a career in technology, where he ran a tech company, to real estate investment after selling his tech business.
Timestamps:
00:01 – Raising Private Money Without Asking For It
05:28 – Investments in real estate are resilient and valuable.
08:44 – Real estate size is crucial for competition and success.
12:37 – Investor emphasizes the importance of careful money management.
16:39 – Attract, educate, nurture, and close.
18:24 – Invest in the relationship. Add value to other people.
21:34 – Casual lunch turned into an unexpected business discussion.
24:16 – Abundance mindset trumps scarcity.
29:40 – Connect with Ray Hightower:
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Raising Private Money: Strategies from Ray Hightower’s $3 Million Success
Jay Conner [00:00:01]:
Welcome to another amazing episode of Raising Private Money. I’m Jay Conner, your host, also known as the Private Money Authority. We talk about how to raise private money without ever asking for money on this podcast. Well, how in the world do we do that? We’re gonna unpack that for you. And I’ve got a very, very special guest to join us on the show today. My guest has raised over $3,000,000 in private money, primarily for, commercial deals, And we’re gonna be talking with him about exactly how in the world he goes about raising private money, what are his favorite methods, How does he find his private lenders? How does he start conversations? All that kind of good stuff that I know you love for us to talk about. Well, his company buys commercial real estate used in private money, in Arizona, Tennessee, and Texas. And his special focus is actually on 50 to 150-unit multifamily property. So, as you have heard me say many times, it doesn’t matter if it’s single-family houses, commercial, apartments, or self-storage.
Jay Conner [00:01:13]:
It’s all the same money. It’s just a matter of how we structure it for the deal. Well, in this episode, we’re going to dive deep and learn how my special guest, Ray Hightower, and his favorite ways to raise private money, right after this.
Narrator [00:01:32]:
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 extract 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 [00:02:01]:
Oh, my lands. Hello, Ray Hightower. Welcome to the show.
Ray Hightower [00:02:06]:
Thank you so much, Jay. I’m I’m very glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
Jay Conner [00:02:10]:
Absolutely. I’m excited to have you here, Ray, because you had me on your show, not too long ago, and I was so impressed. You’re a fantastic interviewer and host. And, of course, while I was on your show, I learned quite a bit about you and all these 1,000,000 dollars that you’ve raised in private money. And I said, well, Ray, we got to continue the party and get you on my show because I wanna interview you about how you’ve gone about raising private money. So before we dive into your favorite methods and how you attract private money into your world, let’s go in your background for just a minute. You didn’t start in real estate. You started in something very different.
Jay Conner [00:02:53]:
So, share with, my audience your backstory.
Ray Hightower [00:02:57]:
Sure. Yeah. Thanks for having me. My backstory is in technology. I have a computer science degree. I worked for a couple of Fortune 500 corporations, and I started and ran a technology company. Ran that company for a couple of decades. After 21-plus years, I sold that company, and now I’m in multifamily real estate.
Ray Hightower [00:03:18]:
And we can drill down into any of those, but, I know we have limited time. I wanna respect your time and the time of the audience.
Jay Conner [00:03:26]:
Oh, sure. Well, well, first, my curiosity, you know, killed the cat and satisfaction brought him back. What’s the bridge between technology to real estate investing?
Ray Hightower [00:03:39]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, the bridge is this. When you’re in tech, and you know this, and a lot of your listeners are gonna know this too. You, the salaries are high. You know, you can you can earn a a good living. And if you’re running a company, you’re paying higher salaries and you’re paying higher fees to contractors or whomever you hire, so you don’t get to hold on to money. I used to tell people jokingly I was more of a conduit for money than an equity builder.
Ray Hightower [00:04:05]:
And so one difference between what I was doing in tech versus real estate, I still love tech, but I’m at the stage where I want to focus more on building up equity. I built up equity in tech by investing in other companies. You know, I’ve I’ve I’ve been investing in publicly traded stocks since I was 18 years old. So, you know, I’ve done that for a long time. But there’s something different about investing in other companies and investing in publicly traded companies versus real estate. There are advantages in real estate that are not available to investments made in other types of companies, and we can drill down into that if you like as well.
Jay Conner [00:04:44]:
Well, sure. Go ahead and go ahead and share from your experience, the benefits of, investing in real estate.
Ray Hightower [00:04:52]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. 1, capital preservation. You’re rarely in a deal that just goes completely south and the value of the property is lost 100% because there are things we do as operators to make sure that that doesn’t happen just to protect ourselves. We put insurance in place, for example. You wanna make sure that the property is insured to prevent any natural disasters or catastrophes that could happen. And then the land itself is always going to be worth something. There’s always going to be someone who wants the land to build something on it.
Ray Hightower [00:05:28]:
So it’s the odds of it going to 0, I never wanna say that it’s never going to happen. I try to avoid using the word never even though I’ve said the word never about 4 times in the last 30 seconds, but I try to avoid that especially when talking about investments because we, as humans, can only predict so much. So what we try to do is be very meticulous in protecting whatever investment we have, in place. And with real estate, a lot of those protections are built in. 1, the land value just rarely, if ever, goes down to 0, and 2, there are all sorts of insurance you can get to protect yourself against natural disasters or floods or fires or anything like that. And number 3, if you buy the property right, if you buy well-located property, and if you serve your tenants and your residents right, you will always have someone who wants to pay you rent for that property. And I love it especially because you know you know whether your property is valuable or not. If you’re doing commercial real estate, you know, retail, office, industrial, or multifamily, which is what I do, you know on the 1st of every month if you are if you are working by your business plan, if you are delivering value, because on the 1st of the month, that’s when rent’s due.
Ray Hightower [00:06:51]:
And if your tenants are paying you, you know that you’re doing what you need to do. And if you have good tenants, they’ll give you feedback of something something that needs to be fixed, and you can take care of it. But you know every 30 days, you get a very clear report as to whether or not your property is valued, and that report comes in the form of cash flow. So all of those are reasons why I love real estate as a business, reasons why I love it as a store of value, and why I love real estate as a way to generate cash.
Jay Conner [00:07:24]:
Excellent. Makes a lot of sense. The benefits are long. And, of course, we didn’t even touch on the advantages of depreciation and Oh, yes. Saving and saving on taxes
Jay Conner [00:07:36]:
and all that all that kind of good stuff. Now, there are all kinds of real estate assets. There are single-family houses, which I focus on. Mhmm. There are there’s self-storage. There’s land, and then there’s multifamily. There are apartments, which is your focus.
Ray Hightower [00:07:54]:
Yeah.
Jay Conner [00:07:55]:
How did you decide to focus on 50 to 150-unit apartment complexes versus some other type of real estate asset class?
Ray Hightower [00:08:07]:
Oh, that’s a wonderful question. And the fact is the fact that I narrowed my focus to that doesn’t mean that I don’t like the other asset class. I do like all the other asset classes you mentioned, you know, from single-family to retail. Well, the office is a little bit challenging right now for reasons that I can go into later. The office is challenging. You better be doing something crazy creative with the office because people can work from home now, and you better be doing something to truly add value to an office environment. Of course, industrial is wonderful as well. I settled on Multifamily 1 because people always need a place to live.
Ray Hightower [00:08:44]:
No matter what, people always need a place to live. Then I settled on 50 to 150 because that is large enough where you can justify having professional management manage the property for you day to day. And then below 150, it’s small enough that you don’t get in the arena where you’re competing directly against the large private equity firms. I don’t want to I don’t wanna compete against a BlackRock or, you know, call the name of the large private equity firms. I don’t wanna compete against them. I wanna be in a sweet spot where I can perform well, where my team and I can deliver very well for our investors, and where we can deliver very well for our residents, and then we all get what we want out of the deal. The residents get a great place to live. The investors get capital preservation, tax advantages, and a solid return on investment.
Ray Hightower [00:09:40]:
So across the board, everybody wins. And there are ways to do that with other asset classes. I would I would put it this way. It’s important to focus on one thing. Like, if I tried to be all things to everybody, I wouldn’t serve anybody very well. Like, if I tried to do multifamily and single-family and retail, I’d be running around trying to do to be all things to all people. So to me, at least in my experience, having run a tech company for a couple of decades and having done other things in business, there’s a big advantage in having a you know what? I’ll just steal this quote from Charlie Munger, the guy who was, Warren Buffett’s, partner for many years. Charlie Munger says that if you have a circle of competence, it should be small and tight.
Ray Hightower [00:10:32]:
Excuse me. That circle of competence should be small and tightly defined rather than large and fuzzy. Because if it’s small and tightly defined, you can you can focus, and you can do the best possible work for your investors your residents your tenants, and all the stakeholders that you’re serving. So it’s a matter of it’s an area that I love. That’s number 1. And number 2, based on the advice of Charlie Munger and other people who’ve been running businesses for 1000 years, there’s a big advantage in being small and tightly defined when you choose a focus.
Jay Conner [00:11:13]:
Well, that’s a rider downer right there as I call smart quotations for sure. And I love your reasoning, as to why you’re focusing on that 50 doors to 150 doors, you know, on on apartments. So that makes a lot of sense. So let’s dive into the private money since this is the show Yes. Of raving private money. So have you, just to get a point of clarification here, have you used private money, borrowing money from individuals? Have you used that for like the down payments on your deals and you use institutional money for the bigger part of borrowing it or have you used private money for the entire purchase, etcetera? How have you structured private money in your business?
Ray Hightower [00:12:03]:
Yes. Yes. We bring in private money. We bring in private investors as limited partners in our deals. We structure every one of our deals with a limited liability corporation, an LLC that that owns the property, and we split it so that, 70% is owned by the LPs and 30% is owned by the GPs. And that’s essentially how we split it up. And the private money that comes into our deals, the key thing they’re looking for is that they want to know that we, as operators, will be excellent stewards over their money. That’s important.
Ray Hightower [00:12:37]:
A friend of mine, an investor, once said to me he said, Ray, when I invest with you, I need to know that you’re watching my money very closely and making sure that it travels through that investment as securely as possible. And he went further. I happen to be a scout leader. I’m a scout leader in the troop where I grew up, and I’m a very big fan of the Boy Scouts of America. You know, Boy Scouts of America is where my father and my brother and my mother and I were bonded as a family and with other families. Boy Scouts just means a lot lot to us as a family and to me as an individual. And now as an adult, I get together with with some of the guys that I grew up with in the troop. We’re we’re leaders now, and we’re taking our scouts on trips and that type of thing.
Ray Hightower [00:13:24]:
But this investor, it was beautiful that he shared this in this metaphor with me. He said I want you to treat my money the same way you treat those scouts on a camping trip. And when we have our scouts on a camping trip, yeah, we wanna make sure everybody has fun. We go canoeing and rowing and sailing and hiking, and we have campfires, and we do all sorts of things, wilderness survival exercises. People learn first aid. The scouts, you know, age 11 to 18, they learn a lot of life skills. At the same time, as leaders, it is paramount for us to make sure that the scouts get to learn these skills in a safe environment. And so we wanna make sure that the money that our investors place with us comes into a safe environment.
Ray Hightower [00:14:10]:
We’re taking that money, and we’re using it to improve the properties. You know, we’re buying these multifamily investment properties. We improve them, and we give people a great place to live. To give them a great place to live, many times, we have to improve the properties. Property that we have in Tucson that we just closed down a few months ago, we’ve got solar panels there because why not save money on electricity? Or if we have a swimming pool there, make sure there’s a gate around the swimming pool so that some little kid doesn’t fall in the water inadvertently and have a mishap. So it’s very important that when we draw this money in this private money from private investors when we draw this money in, that we steward that money very carefully, that we watch over it so that it can grow. And that’s what we do. So we bring in private money from investors.
Ray Hightower [00:15:02]:
We formed a limited liability corporation. We are partners together, and we are stewards of their money. And that’s it in a nutshell, and I can drill down into any of that as you see fit.
Jay Conner [00:15:14]:
Sure. Well, what you just shared, Ray, reminds me of the fact that our private lenders are not investing in our deals. They’re not in they’re secured with that, but they’re not investing in our deals. They’re investing in us as the operator.
Ray Hightower [00:15:34]:
Yes.
Jay Conner [00:15:34]:
That’s what they’re doing. They’re investing in I mean, they trust you, their investment is in you, the operator, that you know, you know, that you know what you’re doing. So, let’s get into some of your methods.
Jay Conner [00:15:49]:
What are some of your favorite ways to attract private money and attract new private lenders to come on come on board with you as a, you know, limited, partner?
Ray Hightower [00:16:01]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. There’s a, there’s a method, really, a 4-step method that we use to attract investors and bring them on board, and, this was taught, to me by one of my mentors in the business, Hunter Thompson, who runs an organization called Raise Masters. I’m a member of that. And, Hunter also has a a book about raising capital. And you’ll find if you just Google his name and raise capital, or search for his name on Amazon, you’ll find his book. But Hunter and his team over at Raise Masters break down 4 steps when we’re raising capital. Attract, educate, nurture, close.
Ray Hightower [00:16:39]:
Attract, educate, nurture, close. And what it comes down to is, 1, you wanna be attractive to people who wanna invest with you. One of the ways you’re attractive is through your track record. What have you done before with money that has been invested with you by other people? And if you don’t yet have a track record, it makes sense to partner with others who have a track record so that for your first few deals, you are building up a track record of your own. So you start by partnering with other people, and partnership is really a core value of mine, and we can talk about that as well. Educate. One of the biggest ways we add value to people in this industry is through education, teaching them things that they need to know to be effective and to be successful. And that’s something that I love and respect about you, Jay, with everything that you’re doing with your podcast with your speaking, and with your events.
Ray Hightower [00:17:32]:
You are providing education to the community. That is a huge value add because once that education is given to someone else, it doesn’t get less valuable in your brain. I would argue that it probably got more valuable in your brain because every time we teach something to someone else, it gets reinforced inside of our brains. And it also became value valuable to the people that you taught it to. You bring these people into your events in your podcast or in the other vehicles that you use to educate people, and everybody wins. It’s like, I wish I could remember who said this, but if you have a candle and it’s lit and you use your candle to light someone else’s candle, your flame doesn’t get diminished, and their flame ignites, and everybody has flames. So that is the wonderful thing about education, right there. The third step is nurture, which is more education.
Ray Hightower [00:18:24]:
You know, education, nurture, those tied together, that’s more education where you’re taking them deeper, where you’re building the relationship over time, where you’re demonstrating to them that even if they don’t have an interest in investing in you today, you care enough about them and what they’re doing to provide them with more education or connections or events or podcasts or video education or something like that where you continue to add value, you add you nurture the relationship by adding value to the relationship. And then when you get to the c, the close at the end, I’ve had people say to me, it’s almost been a surprise. I’ve been at lunch or dinner with somebody, and we’re just talking about everything all over God’s green earth. We’re talking about real estate, or we’re talking about, you know, you know, raising kids or investments or something or anything else in the world. And then we get up to leave. And, you know, one of the guys says, oh, by the way, I wanna put $100,000 into, that deal that you just, were promoting. And I never mentioned the deal during the meal at all. You know? And so that’s where the way it works.
Ray Hightower [00:19:32]:
If you do the attraction if you do attract, educate, and nurture well, and if you do it with a spirit of giving where you’re providing to people, the close takes care of itself. You don’t have to, oh, you know, you use the closes that are in some of the sales books that are out there, you know, the different tactics or whatever. The close takes care of itself because as you said, Jay, we’re not just selling the deal. May well, we’re selling the deal a little bit, but we’re selling ourselves. We’re selling ourselves as capable capable captains of the ship, as capable stewards, as people who are stewarding their money through this vehicle, this investment that we’re offering. And so the close with the investors that I brought on board, it mostly takes care of itself.
Jay Conner [00:20:23]:
I tell you what, Ray. You just went over so many nuggets right there that I wanna unpack a few of them and reset them. Alright. First of all, one reason that the one reason that you and I connected so well when I was on your show was this piece on education. Yeah. Yes. I tell people, you know, I’ve got 47 private lenders right now. Not one of them had ever heard of private money or how they could use self-directed IRAs or any of that stuff until, and you’ll remember this, Ray until I put on my teacher hat
Ray Hightower [00:20:55]:
And put on my teacher hat. Yes.
Jay Conner [00:20:59]:
You started teaching them about what private money is and how they can get high rates of return. So you’re so spot on with the education and the nurturing. And then, you just said a phrase that is a right or downer and that phrase is, you said, the clothes takes care of itself. Well, that’s, that’s the same thing I say all the time. I don’t have to ask. For example, I was having lunch this past Sunday a week ago, with, a good a good friend of mine. He lives out in Texas. He grew up here in North Carolina.
Jay Conner [00:21:34]:
He was visiting. We were raised in the same church. And so, anyway, we’re eating fried chicken and pork barbecue and coleslaw and baked beans and, extra sweet tea, of course, being here in the South. And so after we’ve been catching up a little bit and and all this and that, He’s getting ready to leave, and, and it was a by the way thing a by the way thing. He said, by the way, Jay, on your private money, deal that you got there, how soon could you put $300,000 to work? Well, you see, I never brought up private money at lunch.
Ray Hightower [00:22:14]:
Yes. Yes.
Jay Conner [00:22:15]:
He knew what I did. I mean Yes. I sent him the information that he requested on my program. I didn’t see particular information about a deal. And so that that’s such a huge takeaway lesson from this little story here, Ray, that you’re sharing. Because whenever I have felt like I’m pushing, or I’ve got on my selling hat, or I’m trying to then they push back. They push me back.
Jay Conner [00:22:46]:
Right? And so as long as I have the mindset that it’s okay if you don’t invest. There’s a lot more money out there that I can use anyway. Right? So it’s okay. It’s okay if you don’t invest.
Ray Hightower [00:23:03]:
Yes.
Jay Conner [00:23:04]:
And I and I sorta got, like, this picture in my mind of when I’m teaching the program. I’m just sharing facts. It’s just sort of a fact-of-the-matter thing. Of course, I’m gonna I’m gonna point out benefits and so on. But I’ve got this picture in my mind that I got one foot out the door getting ready to leave anyway. Right?
Ray Hightower [00:23:25]:
Sure.
Jay Conner [00:23:27]:
And it’s okay. So given what I just said, how important it’s a 2 part question?
Ray Hightower [00:23:35]:
Okay. How
Jay Conner [00:23:36]:
I’ll do part 1 first, then I’ll do part 2. Part 1 of the question is, as a capital raiser, how important is your mindset? Put aside the strategies. Put aside the techniques. Just how important is your mindset? And what I mean by mindset is your outlook on this thing. You know what I mean by mindset.
Ray Hightower [00:24:01]:
Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, yeah. I think it is extremely important, and I’m glad you brought it up. Your mindset governs how you see things. It governs what you say. It governs how you interact with people.
Ray Hightower [00:24:16]:
And I think your mindset even governs the vibe you give off with other people. And have you ever been with somebody, I’m sure you have, where you just click and you have a good rapport and good vibe, and you know that’s a person that you wanna do business with or trust or whatever, and then somebody else, you don’t feel that same vibe or rapport. And I think a big part of that vibe and rapport comes from the mindset of the people who are there and how they’re interacting with each other. Some people have well, let’s just look at one. Some people have an abundance mindset, and some people have a scarcity mindset. And the abundance mindset is so powerful. Yeah. You are a man with an abundance mindset because you know that no matter how many people you teach what you teach, no matter how many people learn what you have to teach, there will always be more opportunities for all of you.
Ray Hightower [00:25:16]:
But someone with a scarcity mindset might say, oh, I didn’t wanna share these secret gems because they might take my secrets, and there will be nothing left over for me. But if you have an abundance mindset, you realize that when we are in and I’m also a big fan of capitalism. Right? And we’re you mean, if you have an abundant capitalistic mindset, and, you know, with healthy capitalism can be practiced incorrectly, but with healthy capitalism, you know that when we do business together, 1 plus 1 doesn’t just equal 2. 1 plus 1 can equal 4 or 8 or 16 or 128 or 256 because you’re you come together if you have the right abundance mindset. You know that when you combine your forces, you can achieve things that neither one of you could do as individuals. And, you know, mindset is important. Mindset generates or, informs partnership. 2 of my key partners are 2 guys, Adrian Diaz and Kobe Fryer.
Ray Hightower [00:26:16]:
We work together very hard on our deals, and there are things that I’ve been able to achieve working with Kobe and Adrian that I never would have been able to achieve as I never would have achieved as an individual because those guys are they have skills that complement mine. We complement each other. We tell each other the truth, you know, in love and respect. We don’t always agree, but we put our heads together, and we figure stuff out. We disagreed about something yesterday, and, you know, we just worked through it. You know? That’s just what it is. You know? That’s how we do it. And as a result, because we see things from different perspectives, we, as a team, are much stronger.
Ray Hightower [00:26:59]:
And it’s because of them, I’ve been able to focus on the areas that I focus on, they focus where they are, And together as a team, we’re able to achieve more. We’re able to acquire more. We’re able to sift more properties. We’re able to able to bring in other capital raisers to help us raise even more money. So, that’s that’s what I think about mindset. A very long answer to your question.
Jay Conner [00:27:24]:
No. I mean, you did a you just, threw a lot of, very valuable nuggets there. And so one thing you said that is so important is, let’s just recap the mindset. You used the word abundance.
Jay Conner [00:27:41]:
One thing you said, one of the things that I wanna underscore is you said your mindset filters maybe that’s my word, but that’s what I heard you say. Filters affect how you see everything.
Ray Hightower [00:27:53]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes.
Jay Conner [00:27:56]:
So so so the types of mindset that I’ve heard you talk about, either specifically or reference, abundant mindset, You’re an educator. So you’ve got the mindset that it’s mindset is how you view yourself to begin with. Mhmm. Well, that is what it is. It’s how you view exactly and how you view everybody else. But, so you have an abundant mindset. You’re an educator, you’re leading with a servant’s heart. So there’s another mindset you have.
Jay Conner [00:28:25]:
And that’s why I’ve been able and you’ve been able to raise so much private money is that when I’m visiting with somebody new, a new potential private lender that might be interested in, you know, coming on board and working with me, The way I’m viewing them, my mindset towards them is I’ve got something that I know can probably impact you and your family’s livelihood
Jay Conner [00:28:54]:
And make a difference make a difference in your life. And, you know, as a result of that, Carol Joy, my wife, and I received thank you notes in the mail, hugs, and expressions of thank you for how we’ve impacted people’s retirement years. And so, as you say, you know, it’s a win-win scenario for everybody. Ray, I know my audience wants to connect with you. I know you’ve got a capital fund where you have, partners come in and invest with, you on your deals. So let me just open it up to you. How would you what type of people or who would you like to connect with you, either on the fundraising or any other ways that you can serve, my audience?
Ray Hightower [00:29:42]:
Sure. Sure. We work well with people who have an abundance mindset. You know, we’re not we’re not just after anybody who wants to put money into what we do. You know, one of my scouts, a kid about 14 years old, after I sold my tech company asked me, would you have sold your company to someone you didn’t like for $1,000,000,000? And I had to think about it. That’s a really good question for a kid to ask. Right? And what I shared with him is you gotta think very carefully about who you do business with. Just because they have a lot of money to invest with you or work with you, that might not be the money that you want.
Ray Hightower [00:30:19]:
So we’re we’re looking to partner and collaborate with people who have an abundance mindset. Know, of course, you know, some people want capital preservation, tax advantages, and a solid ROI, but it’s very helpful when they understand what our mission is. You know, we buy multifamily apartment properties. We improve them, and we give people a great place to live, and we get capital preservation, tax advantages, and a solid ROI. It’s really good when they understand how those missions come together because we believe that when you deliver great service to to people, you know, great service to your tenants or residents or whatever, everybody wins. So it helps when they do that. So, we’re looking to partner with people, mostly accredited investors. We have some deals available for nonaccredited investors.
Ray Hightower [00:31:11]:
If you wanna know details about that, you can reach out to me via reyhightower.com orroiclear.com. Glad to talk to you there, and, you know, let’s have a conversation. Let’s, you can review what we’re doing at dealwise@roiclear.com. You can review what we’ve done business-wise and tech-wise at, www.RayHightower.com. And through both of those vehicles, you can reach out to me, and we can have a conversation if you think it makes sense to have a conversation.
Jay Conner [00:31:40]:
So check out www.RayHightower.com. That’s www.RayHightower.com. Of course, we’ll have these, in the show notes. And then at www.ROIClear.com. My lands, Ray, what a blessing it’s been to have you on the show. Yes. I love your inspiration. I love your energy.
Jay Conner [00:32:09]:
I love your spirit. Final words, my friend.
Ray Hightower [00:32:14]:
In final words, grateful. Jay, thanks for having me here, man. I know you’re doing a lot of work in the community, a lot of good work in the community. You have an abundance mindset, and it has been a blessing and an honor to be here with you. So thank you for that. And, I’m I’m, I’m I’m just wishing, you and everybody in your family and on your team and, your students and your collaborators, I wish all of you well. So final words. That’s it.
Jay Conner [00:32:40]:
God bless you, Ray. And to you in the audience, God bless you, and thank you for taking the time to join us here on another amazing episode of Raising Private Money. If you’re listening on one of the podcast platforms, be sure to follow me so you don’t, miss out. Be sure to, review and like as well. And if you happen to be watching on YouTube, be sure and subscribe and click that bell. I look forward to seeing you right here on the next episode of Raising Private Money.
Narrator [00:33:12]:
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. Download your free guide, which shares seven reasons why private money will skyrocket your real estate investing business right now. Again, that’s www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide to get your free guide. We’ll see you next time on raising private money with Jay Conner.