Should you take a leap of faith and start your real estate journey?
Burnie Lund did and so should you.
He is an executive pastor at a Baptist church in San Diego who went from having zero knowledge in multifamily to closing his second apartment syndication deal. In this episode, Burnie shares his story and how he and his new company, Forge Equity Group, are cultivating wealth by creating opportunities for others.
[00:01] – [05:08] From Ministry to Multifamily
- How Burnie first found his way to real estate
- These are the early lessons he learned
- The importance of following mentors
- Burnie reveals how he raised capital
[05:09] – [10:02] The Heart Behind the Business
- Why do you have to figure out your avatar?
- Looking for champions and how they can help your business grow
- Burnie tells us how a little bit of sacrifice can have a big impact
[10:03] – [12:08] Finding Deals
- Here are some useful tips from Burnie
[12:09] – [13:25] Closing Segment
- Reach out to Burnie!
- Links Below
- Final Words
Tweetable Quotes
“I would say the key is just consistency. Don’t give up, keep going forward. And that’s what I tell other folks: Don’t give up. You’re gonna get there. You just keep doing the right thing, and doing what your mentors tell you to do. And you’ll make it.” – Burnie Lund
“This world, this business, this industry is just too big. There’s too many ways to skin the cat. You need to lean on those who have gone before.” – Burnie Lund
“Find, I guess, your markets, find your areas, and just become an expert in them.” – Burnie Lund
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Connect with Burnie at burnie@forgeequitygroup.com.
Connect with me:
I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.
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Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com
Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
Burnie Lund [00:00]
I would say the key for maybe someone just starting out or even someone established is to find, I guess, your markets, find your areas, and just become an expert in them. Like, my deals are both right now in Augusta, Georgia. I do want to expand into other areas, have lots of dreams about that. But I feel that I understand that market, that MSA very well. And so if you can dial in in that way, I think it’s a huge help.
Intro [00:25]
Welcome to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we’ll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big.
Sam Wilson [00:37]
Burnie Lund is an executive pastor at a Baptist Church in San Diego, but he’s also an active real estate investor. Two years ago, he went from knowing nothing about real estate to closing his second apartment syndication just last month. Burnie, welcome to the show.
Burnie Lund [00:50]
Hey, thanks, Sam, appreciate you for having me on.
Sam Wilson [00:53]
Hey, man, pleasure’s mine. Three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show, in 90 seconds or less? Where did you start? Where are you now? How did you get there?
Burnie Lund [01:01]
All right, 90 seconds or less. I started at zero, knowing nothing about real estate whatsoever, was not in my family or anything and just basically saw the need to improve in my family. And I found a buddy of mine who was doing some buy and hold in single-family. I tried to follow him, didn’t work, at least in his area. But we ended up going to Georgia and doing that. And then I got bit by the multifamily bug. So that’s how I ended up in multifamily syndication. Where am I now? Well, we just closed our second apartment syndication a little over 100 units under management. So not huge. We’re obviously pretty new at this. But you know what? I feel like I’ve learned a ton. How’d I get here? Honestly, I’d have to say God is number one. But my wife has been an incredible support. And one of the big lessons I’ve learned in multifamily is that you just can’t do this alone. It’s not a lone man sport.
Sam Wilson [01:53]
Right, definitely a team sport. I like having guests on the show where this is the beginning of their journey. Because when you get people, and they’re very valuable, but when you get to the billion dollars under management mark, you tend to forget not just the early lessons, but the early grit and grind it took to get there that seven, eight years in the rearview. It’s like yeah, you know, it was hard out of the gate. But now we’re 9-10 figure owners, and it’s a different animal. So tell me, you know, for you, what was the process like, just from a scaling perspective? How did you get it done?
Burnie Lund [02:27]
Well, I say the short answer is you just walk through the doors as they open, you just can’t stop. And I believe that God opened those doors for me and my family, for sure. But the early days, $100 difference in our monthly budget was immense. You know, it was crazy. Our very first deal, I remember $14,000 risk capital was like a make or break type of thing. And now we’re a little bit past that. But the funny thing is, with every deal, you’re stretching yourself a little more, and it’s like you’re always back in the same place. But I would say the key is just consistency. Don’t give up, keep going forward. And that’s what I tell other folks: Don’t give up. You’re gonna get there. You just keep doing the right thing, and doing what your mentors tell you to do. And you’ll make it.
Sam Wilson [03:11]
“Do what your mentors tell you to do.” Was that part of your success?
Burnie Lund [03:15]
100%, I’m definitely a little bit of an arrogant guy. I struggle with that. I think a lot of people struggle with pride. But I found out along the way, pretty early on and, you know, often in the time sense that you can’t know everything. This world, this business, this industry is just too big. There’s too many ways to skin the cat. You need to lean on those who have gone before. And with my best mentors, I’ve learned to do what they say. And I stay out of trouble.
Sam Wilson [03:42]
Two things that are required in this business, and I say it over and over on this show are deals and money. How have you found both of those? From what I hear being a Baptist pastor is not exactly the seven-figure paycheck. So 100 bucks, if that’s gonna break the monthly budget, how did you fund the money side of things handled.
Burnie Lund [03:58]
The long story short, as I learned how to syndicate, put in a little plug for my mentor group, Michael Blank and my mentor Drew Whitson. They basically taught me how to raise money and how to find capital in other places. So our first deal, honestly, we had basically zero of our own money in it. Started with friends and family as so many people do. For our second deal, it really just kind of exploded. You know, I can talk more about that. But basically, you do it right the first time and word begins to spread and you’re able to grow and scale.
Sam Wilson [04:29]
Right. That’s really awesome. Did you raise all the money yourself? Or did you bring on a series of partners? How did that process work?
Burnie Lund [04:36]
Partnering is a huge part of it. I tried to go it alone the first time. I really wanted to, it seemed like a very small goal, you know, only about $850,000. I thought I could do it. Well, I only got a quarter-million raised and so I ended up having to bring on some partners but they are good dudes and they have saved my bacon quite a few times in decision-making and they helped me bring in the rest of the capital. And I partnered for my second deal as well. kind of learn my lesson the first time, bringing the partners early. But I have enjoyed raising capital myself as well.
Sam Wilson [05:09]
That’s really an interesting part of this business. You know, I talk to people all the time, who, again, they’ve got a billion dollars in assets under management. And yet, they’ll still bring on other people to go either through, especially to the fund to funds model. But to bring in outside capital into the deals, because there’s always a need for more investment capital. So that’s really awesome. You went from the first deal being hard to the second deal, you said, the floodgates kind of opened up, it was like, “Oh, hey, we’re making larger leaps and bounds on the second deal,” what changed?
Burnie Lund [05:42]
I’d say a couple of things. One, I finally figured out my avatar, is the word that’s often used. It’s funny, that’s more of a Hindu term. Sometimes I’m like, “I don’t want to use the word avatar.” But in the industry, that’s real common, you know. We all know what that means is basically finding the investor that is exactly like you. Somebody you resonate with someone that you really identify with. And I think for my second deal, I found my avatar. And the second piece of the puzzle is really finding an influencer, that can be my champion. And I found a couple of those investors that really just believed so much in what I was doing for them, and for others, that they would just talk to other people left and right about what I was doing and tell them to call me and that I needed to get a hold of these people. Those two aspects, really dialing in your avatar and then finding basically an influencer or a champion or two that can really go to bat for you when you’re not around.
Sam Wilson [06:37]
Did you have to pay that influencer? I mean, I know there’s a lot of people out there that are making a lot of money for just putting social media posts out and saying, “Hey, you know, this is somebody you should go check out.” It’s kind of like affiliate marketing on steroids. But…
Burnie Lund [06:50]
Right.
Sam Wilson [06:50]
Is that the route you went? Or was this just more organic networks that just said, “Hey, I want to support what it is that Burnie’s doing.”
Burnie Lund [06:58]
Organic networks, I did not pay for them. They were basically just good friends that became investors. They just believed so much in the model and in me that they went out and they basically recruited for me.
Sam Wilson [07:11]
That’s really cool. Talk to me about how you refined your avatar. I’ve been through playing those exercises, personally. And I always think it’s an intriguing exercise, but especially when you’re new, how did you figure out who that person is?
Burnie Lund [07:25]
Great question. I don’t want to say an accident. But you know, when I first started out, I was trying to dial in an avatar based on net worth or based on, you know, the location or where they were. And there’s nothing wrong with that. People do it successfully all the time. But that’s not the way my personality works. And I really found that I just identified with people in exactly my situation: pastors, missionaries, full-time Christian workers, people that 100 bucks a month in their budget really made a big difference. The desire to help folks just like me kind of became a huge part of why I do my investment, more than just money, more than just expanding or scaling, or even helping my family. I realized that here was a whole world in which I could tap into helping others that are just like me. That’s how I basically found my avatar.
Sam Wilson [08:18]
I love that. And I love the heart behind that, probably not something that’s taught in the mission field environment, you know, how to invest in real estate, how to create passive income. I mean, you know, it’s not part of your curriculum. It’s not part of anybody’s curriculum, unfortunately. But especially in that environment, how have you found a creative way to engage that, but also, nobody goes into the mission field because of the lucrative returns right? That being said, they’re not going to be high-net-worth investors, I guess, is the long way around the barn saying this. How do you create opportunities for people that maybe aren’t high-net-worth investors inside of commercial real estate?
Burnie Lund [08:55]
Honestly, it involves a little bit of sacrifice on my part, and I have a pretty low entry at this point. My published minimum is 25,000. And I may increase that, but I don’t see that going up very high. Just because, psychologically, that would eliminate a lot of the folks that I’m trying to help. And the sacrifice is basically, I’ve had several times people come to me saying, “Hey, I really want to be involved,” “Hey, I really have a family member, would you accept 5000?” In the syndication world, that’s very counterintuitive. You just say, “Oh, no, you know, just save up your money.” You know, just wait… And I think that once people get a taste of it, just helping them develop an investor mindset, you know, someone can be very financially-sound and not have an investor mindset and getting them in this type of alternative investment, I think opens doors for them. Honestly, it opens doors for me even if the time horizon is a little bit longer, because think about it at $25,000 investor if I do it right, there are going to be a 50,000 investor in three years or so. There would be 100,000 investor after that, just kind of marches on.
Sam Wilson [10:03]
Yeah, that’s great. I love that. And you’re absolutely right, you hit it on the head, it is a sacrifice. I mean, to take on $25,000 investors or $100,000 investors, that’s 20 times the work. That’s 20 more documents, that’s 20 more people to communicate with answered questions. I mean, it’s a heck of a lot of work. So you know, kudos to you for taking that on. And if your investors aren’t aware of the sacrifice that you’re putting in to make sure that they can get involved, maybe there’s a way to let them know that, “Hey, this is a labor of love for a lot of people.” So that’s really cool. I’m glad you’re there certainly doing that. Talk to us about deals. I mean, deals are hard to come by. And right now people are just fighting over anything. If it says multifamily, I feel like there’s a bidding war on it. How are you finding deals?
Burnie Lund [10:50]
Well, thankfully, I got into multifamily right in the middle of COVID when a lot of folks who are backing away, and so I was able to get a foot in the door. But I would say the key for maybe someone just starting out or even someone established is to find, I guess, your markets, find your areas, and just become an expert in them. Like, my deals are both right now in Augusta, Georgia. I do want to expand into other areas, have lots of dreams about that. But I feel that I understand that market, that MSA very well. And so if you can dial in in that way, I think it’s a huge help. And then a second aspect is property managers, like, everyone talks about commercial brokers, and you do need to work with commercial brokers. But both of my deals, I actually found through my property manager, not through a commercial broker.
Sam Wilson [11:38]
This was before you had a deal. So how did you have a property manager before you had a deal?
Burnie Lund [11:42]
Hey, good question. So I guess it’s a carryover from my single-family day. We ended up buying four homes in that MSA and I was really spinning my wheels. I was trying to work in like three different markets in multifamily. My wife and I just sat down one day looked at one another and said, “You know what, we’re going for broke,” in the market we know best, which is where we have our single-family homes. And we took about three months, all of a sudden, boom, we had deal number one.
Sam Wilson [12:09]
That’s awesome. I love it. Burnie, thanks, taking the time to come on today and really share us your story of how you have figured out how to syndicate, how you’re raising money. What it is you’re doing, really to give back to your community of people that need the investments that you’re able to present, then also how you’re finding deals and money. That’s really cool. I love your progress so far and can’t wait to see here what the next few years hold for you. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you what is the best way to do that?
Burnie Lund [12:37]
My new company is Forged Equity Group and I have an email: burnie@forgeequitygroup.com. And you spell burning with a U, B-U-R-N-I-E.
Sam Wilson [12:46]
That’s forge, F-O-R-G-E, equitygroup.com.
Burnie Lund [12:50]
That’s right.
Sam Wilson [12:51]
Fantastic. We’ll also make sure that we put that information in the show notes. Burnie, thanks again and have a great rest of your day.
Burnie Lund [12:57]
You, too, Sam. Appreciate you letting me have the time on.
Sam Wilson [12:59]
Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen, if you can do that for us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories so appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.
