# # Entrepreneur of the Week - Post Number 3 # The decision to leave the comfort zone in the coveted position,…

# # Entrepreneur of the Week - Post Number 3 # The decision to leave the comfort zone in the coveted position,…

# # Initiated week Post Number 3
# The decision to leave the comfort zone in the coveted position, the meeting at the restaurant and the birth of "Investo"

Yes, I missed the 2008 crisis. I was too busy with activities in Israel - politics, entrepreneurship, urban renewal, nightlife, I even managed to miss an opportunity to buy an excellent ground floor apartment (remember the first post?). From there, I discovered the United States in 2011. It's not that I did not visit before of course, I still managed to climb the twins, but real estate it happened in 2011.

"You buy a private house, with a tenant inside, and get two years of rent in advance" - have you heard this sentence in one way or another? So do I. "Here's a private home in a great neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan," he told me in a meeting at his office, "and it's in Columbus, Ohio," he continued. “These are cities that have been hit hard by the crisis and many have left and now they are back and have nowhere to live because everything has already been sold. There is a very high demand, I arranged for you houses with good long-term tenants, here, they paid rent in advance… ”. How I swallowed it.

I knew the same seller when he owned an apartment in one of the buildings I was dealing with on their way to urban renewal. I came as an entrepreneur and came out a fish. I bought two homes for $ 55,000 each and $ 60,000 the other. I received 48 Israeli checks that were deposited in advance ("he was so nice that he even converted my dollars into shekels," I thought). Indeed, the checks were repaid every month and I had no reason to worry. I had nothing to do with the houses, Nada. Then their two years ended and the checks just ran out. "I will ask him to renew the lease agreements and I will receive checks again," I thought.

The number is not connected, his building did not progress at the end to the TMA project and he no longer owns the apartment. I lost the guy. I started rummaging… How do I locate my tenants? Where do you even start?!. That's how I discovered Zilo, Trollia, city sites, management companies. Luckily I had warranty deeds otherwise I had no home addresses at all!
From there, I found out that the houses I bought and were actually listed on me were bought just days before I bought them, by some LLC that sold them to me almost three times what it bought. One house in general was locked and sealed - the municipality did not locate the owner (me) and closed the house against intruders. The second house was leased by a management company at a price unrelated to the amount I received and it took a while to prove that I was the owner of the house and not the one who claimed to be. From there, complete Smetah. The houses I bought for $ 3 two years and something ago were worth $ 115,000 together, under pressure. I sold them at a loss. The guy is gone, and my money is too. I decided not to - it won't happen again.

I spent whole nights studying, researching websites, listening to lectures and podcasts, reading urban programs in English (yes, so far), reading research, analyzing markets, talking to realtors, meeting in Israel with 42 companies / entrepreneurs / marketers / dream sellers of all kinds (hope That no entrepreneur among you was on that list, because less than 10% found me honest or at least understand what they are doing). I quickly learned to recognize the catch,

To confront the viewer with the facts, to understand that his foot was not on the continent and, in fact, besides taking my money, cutting something, moving on and praying - they had no idea what would happen. I decided to get into it and so I made investments through 3 companies I met and found to be reliable.

Later, two deals really succeeded, and by that time I had already completed my job as a salaried employee and started to initiate transactions myself. I even made some extra investments for friends and family. The third deal was the turning point - but we touched on it in the fifth post.

It's time to mention my friend for almost 20 years and my dear partner - Noam Spelter. Noam was an "entrepreneur of the week" a few months ago and you probably see him here and there in groups and forums in the various hats we wear today or you even studied with him in college, so I will not expand on his show (search the forum or Google). In 2016 we sat down for another routine lunch, he came from his college, I got off my office, our offices were 5 minutes away from each other and we met at a restaurant downstairs.

"I'm resigning," I announced. "I have nowhere to go, I have exhausted the clock." Noam was not a minute employee in his life and did not understand how I even survived two years with an attendance clock. "Congratulations, the time has come, and what will you do, TMA again?" "No," I said. "I want to develop my operations in the United States, it seems to me that there is more potential there," I replied. What are you doing in the US? You know I'm linked there, my uncle in Beverly Hills, we're the whole family investing there… ”, he said.

boom! From here the road to unifying activities was very short. "Just make sure you get a letter of dismissal," he said. "You will not see any other money soon." he was right.

We first connected with a "regular" investment house that manages investors' money in the capital market (since Noam's college prepares students for the Securities and Exchange Commission exams, it is very connected in this world). The same investment house has identified a trend of investors taking money out of the market to alternative worlds, and wanted to address this. After a while, we found that there was a demand, and in fact there is no reason for us to be subordinate to an investment house, and so we went out and set up! Nvesto - "Investo House for Alternative Investments". Today, about 85% of our activity is in international real estate (as an entrepreneurial company) and little in Israel (opportunities only). 15% are divided between P2P investments and startups (I will mention that Noam represents an American philanthropic fund that invests in Israeli startups) and now other avenues are being considered, to increase dispersion and reduce correlation, for the safety of investors.

Company Vision: ** ”nvesto! Will enable alternative, reliable and profitable investment opportunities while building a financial work plan and creative financing solutions with personal guidance ”** - because we are really different in the market. Investing with us is part of a work plan that we do for investors as part of investment planning, which is why we manage several transactions simultaneously and in different channels. Needless to say, as a company and as an owner we always invest in ourselves, and in fact first investors (in the purchase of land, ink diligence, deposit) and spend the money last, after the return of the fund and the excess return to the partner investors.

This is how Investo was born, followed by the rest of the group. I will tell at length about our current activities in the United States in the sixth post and about the other members of the group in the seventh post.

Tomorrow's post, Post # 4, will be about the most far-fetched deal imaginable - and more than I made it, it made me.

How in the meantime? interesting? Welcome to comment ...

Ohad Arad - Ohad Arad

Link to the original post in the United States Real Estate Forum on Facebook - Works on a desktop computer (To view the post must be members approved for the forum)

The original responses to the post can be read at the bottom of the current post page on the site or in the link to a post on Facebook and of course you are invited to join the discussion

Related News Real Estate Entrepreneurs

Responses