Today we have Jim Pinciotti on the show! Are you looking for a new investment opportunity in the Tampa market? Population migration to Tampa has created an incredible opportunity for multifamily investors. Jim Pinciotti has 29 years of experience in the Tampa affordable multifamily market. Jim and his wife Rhina are ideally suited as partners for those out-of-state investors looking for boots on the ground. Listen and learn!

Table of Contents:

• Where To Listen To The Podcast
• Leveraging Knowledge of the Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market
• You Have to Believe It
• If You Want to Invest in Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market, Go to Jim and Rhina
• You Don’t Have to Know Everything in the Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market
• Ask the Right Questions
• How to Reach Jim Pinciotti

Leveraging Knowledge of the Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market

Darin: Jim Pinciotti and his wife, Rhina, live in Tampa, Florida. They work as a team. They both bring many years of real estate experience to the table. Both partners and investors are able to leverage their experience and their local knowledge when investing in the Tampa affordable multifamily market.

A little bit on how we know each other. Both Jim and I are part of the same multifamily group out of the Dallas area, Brad Sumrok's group. Jim and I both invested in the same deal together. We've just kept in touch through several years. He's doing some great things down in Florida, and so I'm interested to hear what he is got going on. Can you share with the listeners how many properties and how many units you're invested in?

Jim: Yes. Well, actually the very first unit I invested in was with you, Darin.

Darin: Oh, is that right?

Jim: Yes, that was the very first one. I invested as an LP. We did a variety of LPs. We did like five deals, totaled over 1,800 units as an LP. Then once we got very comfortable and understood the whole format, we felt comfortable moving into the GP position. Since then, we have invested in four different apartments here in the Florida area, mainly the Tampa Bay area. Four different investments totaling just over 530 units. So we're in four GP deals and five LP deals.

Witnessing the Growth of the Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market

Darin: That's awesome. You live in the Tampa area. If you look at what's important for multifamily investing and what markets are good, everyone says high population growth, high income growth, high job growth. It doesn't hurt to be in the Sunbelt and in a nice place to live, too. So share a little bit about the Tampa market and the markets that you're focused on.

Jim: I've been in this market for 29 years. Moved here from the Pennsylvania area. The Philadelphia and the Pocono area. One of the real benefits is I've been able to see the growth of this area. Before I got into the multifamily, I had a territory that covered central Florida. So I was up and down all over the place. I've seen a lot of the growth.

Being able to see the migration of the people and more recently, just really the last five, six, seven, eight years. Just the migration of the people, the growth. We see it on every conference we go to, every seminar. They talk about migration and growth of people and growth of jobs.

The one thing that I really like about Tampa is, of course, it's a beautiful travel area and tourism is amazing here. But we're really a well-diverse economy here. We have a lot of tech. There's a lot of tech companies that are moving here. We have good manufacturing. A lot of financial companies are here. So it's a well-diverse economy. Like when COVID hit, Tampa did great. Orlando didn't do so good.

Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market Supply and Demand

Darin: It's interesting because if you're not in the Florida market, you kind of just think that everyone's just going there for the sun. You don't think about all the companies that have good, high paying jobs in those areas.

Jim: For instance, my wife and business partner, she used to work for Citigroup. Citigroup came down here from New York years ago, like 20, 25 years ago at least. This is almost becoming like a second headquarters for them. They continue to bring more people and grow here, Raymond James Financial. Now we're getting a lot of the Amazon distribution centers all over the place. So there's just a lot of growth. It's such a business friendly environment, Florida in general. So we've been able to continue to increase but increase in a good way.

Darin: Why is population growth so important to investing in multifamily?

Jim: The housing demand is in low supply. So if the migration continues to come here as it has, it's really hard to continue to build faster than the number of people coming here. So you're able to have a short supply of apartment complexes and a huge demand that needs these.

Supply and demand allow us to increase the rents and get a better return for our investments.

Darin: That's so important. I saw it during COVID. The property that we're invested in together, during COVID, you weren't allowed by law to evict tenants if they weren't paying. For an asset owner this is a troubling thing to have happen.

It Makes Sense to Stay in the Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market

Darin: But what I found was the minute somebody left in the middle of the night. Maybe they were moving in with their sister or brother or mom or dad or whatever. There was a line of people waiting to move in.

So being in a market that has population migration growth is so important. Versus being in another market where, if a tenant leaves, you don't know if you're going to be able to fill that unit.

Jim: 100%. That's one of the reasons why we love this market, continue to love Florida. We do like some other markets, but being that we live here, we know the market so well, we've just decided to say, "Hey, look, we're going to stay focused at least on the GP end in this market for now. When the time is right, we'll start to look outside." But it just makes sense to stay here.

Darin: I would say, look, a lot of GPs want boots on the ground. In the group that we're part of, look, I'm in the Dallas area. There's a lot of people in Texas here that are syndicators. They want to get into different markets, but they need boots on the ground. So I would imagine that it's a high value to have somebody like yourself that lives there and knows that market to partner with somebody that may be out of state. That's a great partnership.

Jim: For sure, Darin. I think some of the things that you mentioned in your book, which I got right here.

Darin: Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

You Have a Value to Give

Jim: But it's so true. When I say that people sometimes don't realize what their value is. They want to get into a GP deal, and they're trying to figure out what they can bring to the market. I think that probably took my wife and I a little bit of time. When we first joined our group to Sumrok, "Really, what's our value? What can we bring?" The more people say that we're here. We've been here for a long time. We've got a couple of deals going. We're approached a lot, maybe once or twice a week sometimes by people in our group, "Hey, if you ever have a deal in Florida, I'd love to hear it." They're looking to partner with you.

So we've realized that, wow, that is a huge value that you can bring to another group. We've tried to stay with a couple of partners that we started with. But we're all looking to branch out as well. It's so true that everybody has their niche.

Darin: Yes, that's huge. I think for the listeners' benefit, what you said is so true. When people get involved in the industry and even when they're considering getting into the industry, they have negative potential beliefs about themselves. Like, "What value can I provide?"

One, just where you live is huge. There's a lot of great markets across the country where there are syndicators that don't live there. You could be living in the Carolinas or in Nashville or in Georgia, Florida, in Arizona, and Texas. There's a lot of different places, and there's people that like the multifamily space, that want to invest in those markets but may not live there.

Take Advantage of Other People’s Network

Darin: Even Texas. Well, Texas, there's a lot of syndicators here. Well, they could partner with somebody from New York that isn't here. So that's huge that you guys found that value.

Jim: I think that was one of the things early on. We sort of went into the Sumrok, our group, I would say rather green. We knew real estate, we knew some things like that. But not really the multifamily so much. Then we learned, and we did all the training. You get to know people like yourself. We invested in those groups.

But still, again, it's all about the mindset. What can I bring? Then when you actually look out there and you see what's going on, you realize, "Wow, I know so much more." But it was trying to understand what that mindset was and what you can bring. Sometimes people are ready to do it right away. Other times, people don't realize until people start asking them, "Hey, would you be interested in partnering?" You're like, "Okay." Then you're like, "Okay, it makes sense. I can bring a lot of value to people."

Darin: In addition, look, everybody has their own network. You and Rhina, you guys have connections down in Florida that I don't have. Other people that don't have that maybe are looking to partner with you. So there's different networks that can be leveraged to introduce other limited partners to get involved. So that's attractive.

I've talked to younger people that have reached out on Instagram or whatever, and they think, "Well, I don't have that network." I'm like, "Well, what about your dad, your uncle, your coaches, your teachers?" You have people in your network.

You Have to Believe It

Darin: It's just a matter of reaching out to them. Then they're like, "Well, why would they do business with me? I'm just a young guy," or "I'm green." It doesn't have to be age. It could be, "Hey, I've only been in the business for a year." Well, sell your team.

So now you're going to partner with somebody that has 10 properties. "Well, this guy saw value in partnering with me. He's got 10 properties and the property management company manages 10,000 units and the lender has approved the deal." All those things, you could sell that. But you hit it on the head. It's mindset, and you have to believe it yourself. Until you believe it yourself, you can't get anybody else to believe it.

Jim: It's so true. I'm just going to say, when we went to the first R2R and we were talking to people. I'm like, "Well, how long have you been in this group?" They'd been doing it for two or three years. Let's say they've got what we have now. Maybe they syndicated four deals, and they invested in three or four or five or six different LP deals. I'm thinking, "Oh my god, these people, they're huge." It's like, that's where we're at now. And I don't feel like I'm huge at all. I'm still learning.

There's so much more to learn and so much more to grow. So it's amazing where a couple of years takes you. Then you still have so much more, but you feel like you've accomplished a lot as well.

Darin: Absolutely. Look, when you first get involved, the same thing with me, when I first got involved, I was just thinking about, "Okay, how do I grow my wealth for my family?"

The Guarantee When You Invest in the Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market

Darin: Then all of a sudden you get down the path. Then there's other people that are like, "Hey, how did you do it?" and you start educating other people. Maybe it doesn't have a financial benefit, but it feels pretty darn good.

Jim: No, it does. I think at the end of the day, that was one of the things, again, when I look back at our group and I look back at the people that are involved in multifamily and that I think sold us on our group, but then also continue in the multifamily field was really just about everybody we met was willing to help and was about giving back.

Maybe not everybody, but the majority of people were good, quality people. You know what? Two or three or four years before that, they were in the same position you were. Just getting out of corporate America or trying to make a new career. It was just a fantastic experience.

Darin: But to applaud you, look, you still have to take action. It's scary making your first investment. You have to take that, it's a risk. I know when I got involved, I met syndicators that were like, "Darin, man, I was buying at 30, 40 a door." I'm like, "All right, well, I'm going to buy at 80 a door." Now things are, whatever, 150 a door. But there was no guarantee.

Jim: Not at all.

Darin: The guarantee is you're going to learn something. So we were lucky that we've had tailwinds behind us. Not only did we learn, but we also had good financial performance as well.

Find the Right Partner Before Investing in Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market

Jim: I was scared on the first deal. I don't know how properties we underwrote. So we formed a little group. I had two other people that I was working with. We would meet, and we would underwrite deals, and we'd look at them. We're going to send LOIs. Like I read in your book, you made it to best and final and you were only beat out by one group. But you know what? If you get second, you're still last. But all that was experience and learning how to win a deal.

But when you finally got your LOI accepted, I was like, "Okay, this is the real deal. We got to raise the money. We got to do this." It was scary. But you know what? You just put one foot in front of the other. And you keep moving forward. You have a good network of people if you have questions. And you hopefully have partnered with some people that have different skill sets than you. Then you learn and go. You ask mentors and people for assistance, and you get it done. You just keep moving forward.

Darin: On those large deals, look, there's people out there that go out and they buy a duplex and then a four-plex and an eight-plex and a 12-plex. You can certainly do that. But you don't have the partner to ask. You could be completely green in this space, and then partner with somebody that has five deals or 10 deals. Then when you're going through the process for the first time, it's not their first time, so they can give you advice. That's huge.

Make Sure to Have Clearly Defined Roles

Jim: It really is. This past weekend we had the Christmas party. There was an educational session. It was really just talking about a bunch of things. But one of the main topics that they brought up was picking your team and then making sure you have clearly defined roles. Each person has clearly defined roles.

I would say in the beginning we sort of had roles, but they were in between each other. I think that's one of the learning things is make sure you have those clearly defined roles. But it all worked out. Of course, if you have people that, like you said, have had experience, you leverage that. That's the beauty of the group.

Darin: I don't know if you found this, but it was eye-opening to me in having these. I don't know what you want to call them, speed dating, partner discussions. Whatever they are. But people will get to the point pretty quickly in terms of what they're looking for and ask you where your financial net worth is and your liquidity and what value you can bring. If it's not a fit for them, they're quick to be on the next one.

They want to build relationships. But they also want to build relationships with the right people that can be synergistic and could form a win-win partnership for both parties.

Jim: Yes, 100%. Again, in the very beginning when someone would be like, "So how many units do you have? What's your net worth? What do you think you can raise?" and I'm like, "Uh, uh. I don't even know. I don't even know."

Darin: Is he really asking me that?

Multifamily Investing Is a Different Language

Jim: Exactly. Where now it's like, you meet people and it's pretty much common conversation. If you're talking about maybe doing a partnership where it was very forward.

Darin: You almost feel like you're defensive or you're, whatever, on guard. But then you realize that, look, it's important. People need to cut to the chase, and they're doing it efficiently. You'd rather find out now than spend a month talking to this person to find out that, look, you're both good at the same thing. You both want to do the same thing. Well, you both wasted your time.

Jim: It's so true. Just one, I got a buddy from high school. He just killed it, but he was more in the industrial market. He used to live here in Tampa, but he's out in Utah now. But every once in a while he gives me a call, and I'm like, "How you doing?" He's like, "I'm doing great. My net worth is like $200 million. I just added a couple more deals."

But it seems like when you talk with people more on that level, it's not uncomfortable for them to even talk about it. When I tell him where we're at, he's like, "Oh, man, I'm so happy. You guys are doing great. You're growing," and they're happy for you as well. Again, it's a different language, and they're more comfortable talking there.

Darin: Different language and abundance mindset. Some people outside of that world think that, well, if you get this, then that's that much less that they could get.

If You Want to Invest in Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market, Go to Jim and Rhina

Darin: But in this group, I've just seen so many people help the next guy so that they can level up. Then the same thing happens for them. Even after they get 5,000, 10,000 units, there's always somebody that has more that they can leverage. What type of partners are you looking for?

Jim: We're looking for partners that I think have a good financial background. When I say financial, I think more on the lending. Someone who understands the lending market really well. That understand good operations, and that are very good with the legal. So understanding the legal paperwork, the legal ramifications of contracts, and everything like that. Whether when you're signing the contract or when you're looking at the legal side with the lending or underwriting the insurance.

Because right now, we do a lot of the asset management. A lot of times, I handle the insurance. I'm handling the property manager. But when you have that other group that can handle the other part, do a lot of the analyzing, it would be a good compliment for what we're looking for. Then also capital raisers are always something you can never have enough of.

Darin: So if you are a sponsor, if you're a general partner and you live out of state, Jim and Rhina are local in Tampa. They are boots on the ground. They can be involved in asset management, on the insurance side. And they can capital raise also, definitely consider them. I say that because, and I don't typically do that on a lot of these shows. But there's not a ton of boots on the ground in Florida. And Florida is a very strong market.

It’s Family Effort

Darin: So I think that you really have something unique that you can show as value as being boots on the ground.

Jim: There's that. The boots on the ground is certainly one part of it. The other part, I'm not sure if you actually know. But we both have a broker's license here in Florida, so we're both real estate brokers. Rhina has remained with Coldwell Banker. She handles some of the residential there but then works with me on the commercial. I've sort of kept my own independent firm. Recently, our son started working for us. We're obviously focused on the multifamily, but we're always looking at the market. We get data. We get to see different areas that are developing.

Darin: Not only looking, man, I see posts all the time, you guys are closing deals.

Jim: We're trying to do it. We're just trying to keep moving forward. It's funny, because as much as we stay busy on the asset management and looking at new deals and touring and underwriting, Rhina, I think in the month of August for Coldwell Banker in our region, she was like number one in listings and total revenue. So it's been great. We're real estate professionals. We're in it 100%. We have our focus in multifamily, and then we also have our brokerage. So we're understanding the market whether it's residential or commercial.

Darin: So we're mainly talking multifamily, but I know that you also got involved with a senior living facility, am I right?

Jim: Yes, that's correct.

Darin: Share a little bit about that. Why did you do that compared to multifamily?

The Silver Tsunami

Jim: They call it the Silver Tsunami. Literally every day, 10,000 people a day turn 65. Here in Florida, of course, we have a large population of seniors. So one of the multifamily syndicators that I invested in, actually it was after you Darin. I got involved with a deal in Phoenix and Brent Ritchie who you had interviewed, right?

Darin: Okay, yes. He's moved down your way now too, right?

Jim: Yes, he's an hour south, so he's in Sarasota. Brent called me, and we were talking. He was working with a group that was looking to do this memory care/assisted living facility and wanted me to look at the land contract. Long story short, because I had the real estate license down here. So we looked at it, and we made a couple of changes to it, and then he sent it back in. Then we started talking about the senior market and the multifamily. I think at one point in '19 people were like, "Ah, the market's getting so hot. Is there something else we should start to look at?" because prices were going up.

So we analyzed it. He asked me if I would want to be a part of the team going forward, and it made sense. So I said I would love to. It's in The Villages, which is about an hour or so north of Tampa. Which is the number one senior center, I think, in the United States to be honest with you.

Darin: Which has a reputation for a lot of different things.

Jim: We're not going there.

Senior Living Facility vs. Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market

Jim: But if you're a senior, you could have a lot of fun, I think. Anyway, it was on one of the main roads running through The Villages. It was a really good location. It's a ground-up, and so we are still in the construction stage of it. But we did get involved with that. It's scheduled to be 120 units. It'll be 144 beds, primarily memory care. But we are looking to possibly change that mix a little bit from memory care to memory care and assisted living.

Darin: Gotcha. Look, one, you're going into a different asset class. Two, you're learning about being able to pivot based on demand. Three, you're seeing ground-up construction versus buying an existing cash flowing property. The pros and cons of doing that and the different challenges associated with that. All those are major learning lessons being in the real estate market.

Jim: They really are. Again, it comes down to your team. It just keeps going back to that. That was one of the things. I think, in the beginning that I had to get out of my head. Because I think all of us, and maybe not, when I first was doing real estate, we're buying individual properties, doing all the work. It was a one-man show or two-man show, Rhina and I. But this ground-up, we had to have a good architect. Thank God he was a good architect that was connected with the city that knew all the players in this city. Then you had to get all the permits. You had to have the right management company that focused on memory care.

You Don’t Have to Know Everything in the Tampa Affordable Multifamily Market

Jim: There were just so many phases and steps involved in it. It was like, you don't have to know everything. It was a little mind-boggling. You'd go to a meeting, and I'm sitting in a meeting with the zoning and permitting department. Thank God I had two other people there. I didn't say a word. I just listened. Again, you're just absorbing and listening and understanding.

So the next time or if you have to go to a meeting and they're not there, now you have some more knowledge. But it was, again, about having the right team in place. Thank God we had some really good players on the team.

Darin: For listeners, I think you just said something really important. You don't have to know everything. That's so key. And when people talk about networking, so networking, you could be focused on trying to find partners. You could be focused on trying to find limited partners to invest in your deals. Sometimes I just meet people that are in the space and share stories. Maybe we're not even going to do anything together.

But then something comes up and I'm like, "Oh, you know what? He's got experience with this. I could just call and get an answer." So that networking doesn't have to be a partnership. Or you don't even have to be invested in the same deal. You can leverage the experience of others by getting to know people.

Jim: 100%. Again, it's being open to learning, and I think also, I don't want to say have enough confidence. But having confidence in yourself that, again, you don't have to know everything and ask questions.

Have Confidence by Taking Action

Jim: If you don't know it, it doesn't have to be a stupid question or just say, "Look, this isn't my forte. Can you explain this a little bit more?"

Darin: You said have confidence. There's so many people in this space say, "All right, what's your advice to somebody new coming in the industry?" everyone says get educated. I agree with that, get educated. But after you listen to podcasts and you read books and you talk to people, at some point you need to actually take action.

When you say have confidence, that's kind of what I think about. It's like, you have to at some point take action and have the courage to move forward even without having 100% of the information. Then if something happens, you're in it. There's no turning back at that point. You got to figure out a way to get through.

And you leverage your team. You leverage the resources and the relationships that all of your team members have. It could be you have three team members and you talk, "Hey, does anybody know anybody that's gone through something like this?" and maybe one person does and they reach out.

Jim: You'll figure it out. You just have to. Once you're in it and you've made a commitment to your teammates, and if you don't know this answer and your teammates don't, you just need to go out and find the answer. There's no turning back at a certain point. I remember on the memory care deal, at the board, it looked like our project was going to be approved. Then all of a sudden, one of the guys on the board didn't vote for it to be approved.

You Got to Figure It Out

Darin: The board of who?

Jim: Of the county where we were having it built, so they had to approve it. The point was we needed to reach out to all the different board members. We try to say, "Hey, look, is there a reason why?" and try to explain what was going on. Nobody had experience doing this, but we were the local ones, and so we said, "Okay, I'll do it."

So you try to find out as much as you can about each board member and then go to them and try to get a meeting for coffee or just on the phone. I guess the point is you just have to think outside the box sometimes. And you make this commitment to your team, and you just do your best. You continue moving forward. You continue educating yourself.

If you have to network outside of them, you do it, but you just got to get it done. Again, I'm going to refer back to your book when you said you were having your kids. When you were having your kids, there is no manual, you didn't know. But there's certain things that come up in these deals that sometimes there's not an answer. It's just outside the box.

Darin: And there's no perfect time. Who is at the perfect time to have a kid? You don't have enough money. Your job isn't exactly what you want, whatever the case may be, and you got to figure it out.

Keep Pressing Forward

Jim: You just pull your pants up and get to work on some deals. Anyways, again, I think if you're someone just getting into it, I think you try to find the right people.

Again, I, maybe in the beginning, got a little stuck with paralysis by analysis, looking at all these deals, looking at all these deals. Then finally, you got to get that team and you start making offers. Then once the deal is done and you've won that one, there's no turning back. You got to make it happen. It all goes back to taking action.

Darin: Yes, absolutely, taking action. Look, there's people, I'm sure you've seen it, that join the multifamily mentorship group, and they try to go after a few deals. They don't win a deal, and then they go on to something else. They're not committed. I think that that's the first decision you have to make is you have to decide you're going to do something, you got to commit to it. Then just keep pressing forward. It may take three months or three years, but you don't give up.

Jim: So I had done the LP deals, had not done a GP deal yet, and was working with some of the brokers. This guy had an 18-unit in Tampa. I can't remember if I texted you or called you, and you may not even remember. But we went and we toured it, and I had some questions. You actually wrote back to me or texted me, you're like, "What are you looking at an 18-unit for?"

Darin: I don't remember that.

You’ll Be Scared on Your First Investment

Jim: It was like, "What are you looking at an 18-unit for?" In a way, I was like, wow. But it was because I was trying to do it myself, and I thought that's what I could take down. But it was mindset.

So it was like, again, get the team, pull them together. But not understanding all the dynamics of a team in the beginning, it took a little bit longer, and we're still fighting the mindset of, "I got to do it myself. I got to do it myself." So I'm saying mindset and taking action, but these are all things that I struggled with in the beginning as well.

Darin: But I think that that's where it adds value to other people that are earlier on in their journey. They understand that, look, we were scared too, man. I remember when I wired the first money on the first syndication deal, I was scared man. I was like, "Did I just wire this to ever-never land?" and I knew the people. Still, when anytime something's new, it's going to be scary.

So now you're a GP in four deals. Somebody calls you, you're nowhere near the nervousness that you had the first time somebody asks you to partner on a deal. You still want to partner with good people that you know, like and trust. The first time there might be a little imposter syndrome, like, "Do I have enough knowledge? Do I have enough experience?" all those negative thoughts in your head. But now, because you've done it, you're like, "I can do it."

Being Boots on the Ground

Jim: Yes, 100%. The one thing, too, that I really am glad of the process is that many of the deals have all been right here in the Tampa Bay market. So we have been more of, let's say, boots on the ground, especially on the multifamily. So by being boots on the ground, we're doing the touring. We're doing the underwriting. And we're understanding the market. We're looking at the comps. I have a pretty good construction background as well.

My family, we had heavy equipment cranes in Philadelphia and in Florida. Anyways, we used to do a lot of that. So I understood it. When I could go look at a property, I did a lot of this stuff, so working on the CapEx, trying to figure out, walking around, looking, analyzing. So understanding all that. But then when you go through the full process, getting a syndication software, I've worked with them. We've done that already. I've been in a lot of the meetings and doing the initial conversation with the lender, trying to find out what rates we're looking at. Then looking through the contract.

So I'm glad I've been through all of those pieces. It may not have been the lead on everyone in the insurance, but I understand all of them now. So going forward I feel very confident in a deal that I can bring a lot of value on many different fronts.

Darin: Yes, that's huge. I don't know about you, but I've learned a lot from the onsite property manager. I'm not there getting leases and touring units with new tenants. But having conversations with the onsite person, I learn a lot about what's important to people.

Ask the Right Questions

Darin: That can apply to, "Well, how am I going to put CapEx money into the deal? Or what are some of the objections that people come and look at units and they don't end up leasing? Why? Can we do something proactively as an ownership group to change that?" They're doing their job, but if you ask the right questions, you can learn a lot.

Jim: You can. One of my partners on the one deal, when we do our asset call with the property management company and we're going through the numbers, and it's something that I'll use going forward. But he says, "What do you need from us? How can we help you? What do you need?" Instead of saying, "This is what we're giving you," what do you need to make it happen?

So at the end, maybe you can't give them all of it, but at least you understand where they're coming from. Then if you give them what they need, then on the other end, there's no excuses.

Darin: "Give me this and now we can achieve this result," and then they don't achieve the result, then you're like, "All right, well, somebody's got to be accountable at some point."

Jim: So I thought it was a great question. Then you work on the response, and then just follow up on it. But really learned a lot.

Darin: The other thing is going out on property tours. The brokers have a lot of information, so you ask the broker, "Hey, what would you do on this property? Where do you see the value?"

Jim’s Next Big Stretch Goal

Darin: Then sometimes they share their own opinion. But sometimes they may have just had a tour with somebody else that said, "Hey, I plan on doing this." Then they regurgitate that to you. You're like, "Ooh, that's a good idea." Whether you do it on that property or on a different property, each one of those tours, you have that knowledge bank.

Jim: Very true. That's a great point. I remember that happened on a couple of tours, exactly what you said. Where they were like, "Yeah, these other guys brought up this idea." Sometimes they take the credit, but sometimes they'll give credit to the other person. Especially if it potentially could add value to the property and maybe help you close the deal. So for them, it's, of course, an advantage to use that information as well.

Darin: They're hoping that you can underwrite and pay as high a price as possible so they can get the deal done. So they can make their commission. But, hey, if it helps you, then so be it, so be it. It's win-win. What's the next big stretch goal for you? Where do you go from here?

Jim: We sort of have a couple of stretch goals. One, what we would like to do is we'd like to be able to close two or three deals a year. Let's say, for the next four or five or six years. For sure, hopefully in the Tampa Bay, Central Florida market. But if it leads us outside of that with other general partners, then so be it. We would not not do that. But our company name is Pintes Investment Group.

Pintes Investment Group

Jim: We want to have this umbrella where we have a multifamily division. Let's say Rhina and I stay involved with that. But then we have our brokerage division, which we want to continue to build and expand that which our one son's getting involved. So we would like if he would maybe continue to be able to grow that. Then we still have some single family rentals that we've kept for ourselves. Which a natural progression would be get into property management.

So do we want to have a property management division? We want to have this Pintes Investment Group. We got our multifamily here, we have our brokerage, grow that. Then maybe a property management.

Then we also in the beginning would do fix and flips. You may not believe it Darin, Rhina's always dressed up, got the high heels on, the dress, but she's a great painter. We used to do a lot of that stuff ourselves weekends and nights when we were starting out. We enjoyed doing some of the fix and flips because you could get some cash relatively quick. But also seeing the progress of a property from start to finish was very satisfying for us. So we may have a division over there where maybe one of our kids maybe handles that division as well.

So the stretch goal would be have a full company. We have our multifamily and investments over here, our brokerage. Then maybe one or two of these little side things that they can help grow as well.

Darin: That's very cool. Thinking of you having all those different silos, there's cross-functionality going across them. Just talking about the senior care facilities, you could end up having.

It’s All About Mindset

Darin: You build up the multifamily, you could add in senior care, and then just see how each one flows. Like any business, you look for, where is the demand? If all of a sudden you have a bunch of investors that are like, "Hey, I like this multifamily thing, but I want to diversify. Can you get into more of these types of deals?" The next thing you know you've got a whole another division.

Jim: And that's it. I say we got multifamily, but then we're talking fix and flips, you might be like, "Oh, it doesn't make sense," but we have the contractors over here that are fixing the units. So it's just a matter of saying, "Hey, look guys, I got this property over here. I need you to come over here and do this, too." So it's not as mind-blowing as you think. Again, it's a mindset. Once you've done it two, three, four, five, six, seven times, to do it again is not so overwhelming. So it's just a matter of having then a team under you that can do those things for you.

Darin: I know another syndication group that they were fix and flippers. They are mainly multifamily now. But what they've done is they still do some fix and flips, but they just changed their margin. Like, "All right, I'm only going to do those deals if I get a really strong margin." Versus a lot more fix and flippers might be working on a much more best-case scenario. They're like, "I know I'm going to make money on this deal."

What Jim Likes to Do for Fun

Jim: Yes, for sure. I would say the last two years we've slowed down on that for sure. The market was a little tough as well on prices. It was getting hard to find a deal. The second something came up, there was 20 offers on it. Most of the deals that we got were basically off-market. So you just need to continue to do that.

But on-market, it was hard to find anything. We were so busy with trying to get these deals up and running and going that we didn't have a lot of time for that. But it was something that we did enjoy. We talk about maybe when the time's right maybe do a couple more of these and have the kids more involved in it.

Darin: Yes, that's cool. That's a good way for them to get involved. What do you like to do for fun outside of business?

Jim: First of all, Rhina is a huge traveler, which has rubbed off on me. I've always loved to travel, but I used to travel more in the States. Since we've been together, we've traveled a lot overseas. We've been to Italy, Greece, France, Spain, Portugal.

Then, of course, she's from the Dominican, so we've been down to the Dominican many times. So travel for sure is something that we love to do. Then both of us like to stay in shape, so we work out a lot. We're getting into golf, so we've been golfing. We like to golf, so we're doing that.

There Is Gold on the Other Side of the Rainbow

Darin: Well, you're in a good place for it. Florida has a ton of courses between Naples all the way up through Tampa. You're going to have a lot of different courses there.

Jim: That's it. So golf and then working out. I play a little racquetball. Then we're grandparents now so we love to be able to spend time with the family, of course. Then experience the grandkids on every step as growing up. Again, we're trying to get more freedom so we can do more of that as well.

Darin: Fantastic. If somebody wants to get ahold of you, whether on the partner side or limited partner side or just wants to pick your brain, what's the best way for them to reach out?

Jim: If they would like, they can send me a text. My phone number is 813-263-5650, or you can send me an email. It would be pinciottiinvestments@gmail.com. Or you can go to our website, www.pintesinvestmentgroup.com. Pintes is Pinciotti and Cortes.

Darin: I was wondering how you guys got that name. Well, I appreciate you coming on. I appreciate you sharing. I think it's an encouragement to listeners that are early in the journey to know that, look, we all were scared in the beginning. We all were. But there really is gold on the other side of the rainbow, and you need to take action. With that, I will be signing off till next week.

How to Reach Jim Pinciotti

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