Wealth

Real Estate

Fr
om
th
eP
ub
lis
he
sor
fR
ea
lty
41
1
Vol. 1 • No. 3 • 2011

Serving the Needs of Accredited Investors - INSIDE: Information to Grow and Maintain Your Wealth

8 Turn a Real Estate Hobby

into a Profitable Business 10 Learn to make BANK! 18 Learn Our Secret Recipe
Be a Private Lender, Zero Down Investments
 Dave Lindahl’s
Syndication Secrets
Learn How to Grow Your Portfolio FASTER
K
nown as the “Apartment King”
and the leading authority on
commercial real estate invest-
ing, Dave Lindahl currently
owns more than 7,500 multi-
family units in some of the nation’s best
emerging markets. His private acquisition
firm, the Bostonian Investment Group,
also owns interests in retail centers, self
storage facilities and office buildings
Like most investors, Lindahl started out
small. His first purchase was a modest
Realty411Guide.com
three unit rental in a depressed area of
Boston. He soon made a goal to acquire
1,000 units as quickly as possible, so he
transformed himself from “a dead broke
landscaper” into a savvy syndicator.
Within a short time frame, he was
managing millions of dollars worth of as-
sets on a national scale. In fact, it only
took him 3 1/2 years from the time he
started investing to be able to retire and
enjoy a monthly income larger than most
people’s annual salary!
PAGE 21 • 2011
How did Lindahl acquire so many prop-
erties and accrue an abudance of cash
flow in such little time? Using a sophisti-
cated technique that investors call OPM
(Other People’s Money).
By offering accredited investors an
opportunity to join him on deals, Lindahl
was able to reach his destination to real
estate riches much faster. He estimates
he’s raised more than $30 million in capi-
tal from investors around the world.
His success came so quickly and pro-
reWEALTHmag.com
foundly that soon others began to re-
quest his knowledge, which led Lindahl
to become a top educator in the industry.
He has shared the stage with such lumi-
naries as Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki
and Donald Trump. In fact, Trump asked
Lindahl to write a book on commercial
real estate, “Trump University Commer-
cial Real Estate 101: How Small Inves-
tors Can Get Started and Make It Big.”
Lindahl has also authored numerous
other books and courses including such
best sellers as Emerging Real Estate
Markets, Apartment House Riches, and
The Real Estate Marketers’ Tool Kit.
What’s most surprising is that Lindahl
was at first reluctant to accept responsi-
bility for other people’s money, but he re-
alized it was the only way he could reach
his goal of amassing 10,000 units. So, he
set out to formulate a program to stream-
line the process and ensure maximum
success.
We recently caught up with Dave in be-
tween his travels to discuss syndications
and their importance in growing a well-
balanced real estate portfolio.
“The Real Estate Business is
Really a MARKETING Business”
Question: When did you discover the
power of real estate syndication?
Dave Lindahl: I started syndicating more
than seven years ago, when I realized
that it was easier to buy bigger properties
than smaller properties.
I was self-funding my own deals before
that and I realized I was going to need
a lot more money to reach my goal. By
then, my objective had changed from
[owning] 1,000 units to 10,000 units. I re-
alized the more I could get other people
to partner up with me, the more deals I
could buy.
Q: From an investor’s point of view,
what are some positive aspects to ac-
quiring properties through a syndica-
tion?
Lindahl: Joining a syndication is great for
busy investors because they don’t have
to deal with management, they can have
passive income and participate in the ap-
preciation of a deal.
Investors can also control much larger
Realty411Guide.com
real estate deals than they would have,
had they not participated in the syndica-
tion.
Q: Dave, we know you come from a
very close-knit family. Were your sib-
lings and extended family some of
your early investors?
Lindahl: When I started investing, I be-
came partners with my brother and sis-
ter, but they weren’t my investors. When
I started out, my siblings were all broke,
so they did not have any money to put
into my deals. That’s why I had to go after
investors. My father, who told me to stay
away from real estate when I first started,
actually became a very large investor in
many of my deals and still is.
Q: Is it a good idea to start with friends
and families when raising capital for
syndications?
Lindahl: Doing business with family mem-
bers can be a great way to start, but when
family and friends are involved there can
be more emotional involvement in the
deal. I do see a lot of my students start
with family and friends then graduate to
larger investors.
Q: Organizing syndications takes a lot
of skill, expertise and marketing flair.
Tell us how your bootcamps and self-
PAGE 22 • 2011
study courses help investors learn to
package it all together?
Lindahl: They basically take you step by
step throughout the whole process. First
of all, I show you where the money is so
you know where to find it. A lot of people
don’t know anybody with money because
they are hanging around in the wrong
places. So I show my students where to
locate people with money.
Secondly, I prepare my students on
what to say when they attend events or
locations where there are people with
money. I teach them the initial introduc-
tion and how to offer an opportunity. We
never ask for money, we always offer op-
portunities.
Next, we teach how to close for the
second presentation, which is usually a
lunch or dinner presentation. There you
lay out exactly who you are and what you
do. Of course, my students also learn
how to structure deals properly.
One important thing to note is that if
you’re going to be pulling in money in a
deal, you have to consider the Securi-
ties and Exchange Commission (SEC).
A good part of the training is how to stay
within the boundaries of SEC regulations.
People always ask me: “How do I avoid
the Securities Exchange Commission
rules.” I always say, “You don’t, you just
follow their rules, which are easy rules to
reWEALTHmag.com
follow but you have to know what
they are.”
The most important part of my
syndication training is how to man-
age the deal and how to manage
the investors. Now, I’m not speak-
ing about how to be a landlord, I’m
talking about how to be an asset
manager. Because as a syndicator,
you have to manage your investors,
which can be more difficult than
managing properties.
Q: Really, that’s interesting, why
is that, Dave? COMMERCIAL TRAINING ACADEMY
Lindahl: Because of the emotions,
because of the personalities. And
it’s always the person who puts in
the least amount of money who is
always the biggest pain in the butt!
Q: It must be such an awesome
feeling to know that people place such
trust and high regard in you and your
deals for them to invest with you.
Lindahl: It is. But when I first started, I
didn’t really want to be responsible for
other people’s money. It took me a while
to start offering opportunities so that oth-
ers could come into my
deals. But a lot of people
wanted to be involved and
I realized it would give
us the ability to do more
deals. However, a lot of
responsibility goes along
with having other people’s
money, and it takes time
and specialized knowl-
edge to be able to do that
properly.
Q: What comes first: The
deal or the investor?
Lindahl: Both. The real
estate business is really a
marketing business. You
need to be marketing all
the time. You should be
marketing for deals and
you should be marketing
for money.
If you don’t have [mon-
etary] commitments for any deals that
may come up, when you go to negotiate
for one, subconsciously you will negoti-
ate from weakness because you know
you don’t have the money. A lot of people
actually self-sabotage themselves by do-
ing this.
I’ve heard, “If it’s a good deal, the mon-
Realty411Guide.com
Upcoming Events
by Dave Lindahl
PRIVATE MONEY SYNDICATION
San Diego, CA ... May 20-22
FORECLOSURE BOOT CAMP
Chicago, IL ... June 3-5
MANAGING THE MANAGER
Boston, MA ... June 10-12
Boston, MA ... July 15-17
APARTMENT HOUSE RICHES
Boston, MA ... September 13-16
ey will come,” but it’s always a good idea
to be marketing for both at all times.
Question: Your private acquisition
company the Bostonian Investment
Group is known for acquiring large
multifamily complexes and I know you
also invest in self-storage facilities.
What other type of properties do you
like to acquire?
Lindahl: We also buy triple net lease
(NNN) properties, office buildings and
retail centers. Actually, retail centers are
our favorite type of property acquisition at
the moment.
Q: What is your current investing
PAGE 23 • 2011
style, are you buying and holding or
are you doing short-term deals by re-
positioning ?
Lindahl: It depends on the market and the
type of property. We typically like to hold
and maximize the appreciation since the
deals we acquire have strong cashflow.
Q: Donald Trump asked you to write
the book on commercial real estate for
his educational series, how was it to
work with him?
Lindahl: Donald is a true delegator. If
you’ve ever seen “The Apprentice”, he is
just like the way he is in on the show. He’s
tough, but fair and down deep he’s actu-
ally a very caring person.
Q: Besides Trump who are some other
real estate leaders that you admire?
Lindahl: My first mentor was a guy by the
name of Mark Shavell from Cape Cod,
Mass. He really introduced me to con-
servative investing and commercial real
estate.
I also look up to Sam Zell out of Chi-
cago. He is known as “the grave dancer,”
because he made his billions buying in
markets just like these, markets that are
down.
Q: Besides commer-
cial real estate, your ex-
pertise is also in locating
emerging markets. Can
you give readers a tip on
how to locate a booming
area?
Lindahl: It’s all about job
growth and an increase in
population. We follow and
read the business periodi-
cals on a regular basis and
also research demograph-
ic trends.
Q: Do you have any other
tips or suggestions for
our readers?
Lindahl: Putting together a
syndication allows inves-
tors to use leverage and
acquire larger deals using
other people’s money as
equity. It also gives investors confidence
to get into larger deals knowing they al-
ways have the resources behind them.
Receive Dave Lindahl’s “Insider Secrets
to Creating Wealth” for FREE, simply call
1-800-559-8590 or visit:
www.DavesOffer.com/Realty411
reWEALTHmag.com