Vinney “Smile” Chopra shares his amazing journey from arriving to this country from India with $7 in his pocket to building a $70M multifamily real estate empire. In this episode, we focus in particular on how he started his multifamily investing career and how he eventually raised $1.1M to do his first two deals.
After having graduated from George Washington University, Vinney became a mechanical engineer. He was fascinated by sales and marketing and sold encyclopedias and bibles door-to-door. For several decades, he was a professional fundraiser for non-profit organizations. He started investing in single family houses in the mid-eighties, but in 2007 he became passionate about multifamily investing. Since then, he’s done $125M worth of real estate transactions and currently controls over 1,400 units.
Vinney’s middle name is “Smile” because that what he did a lot during our interview. Here are the topics we cover on the podcast:
- Why he decided to get started with real estate. Too much work! Couldn’t really scale.
- His first venture into MF: hard!, it took 12 months. It seemed impossible. He ended up closing a 14-unit and then a 109 unit just several weeks afterward, raised $1.1M.
Key Takeaways
[7:30] Vinney’s start in real estate investing
- Started with single family housing
- Planned on selling the homes to fund retirement
[12:47] Vinny’s preferred method of learning
- Youtube
- Podcasts (12-15 per week)
[13:31] Why positive thinking is so important if you want to achieve your goals
[18:13] Why Vinney decided to stop investing in single family housing
- Minimal economies of scale
- Risk of 100% vacancy
- After the crash of 2007 lenders would only loan on multifamily housing
[20:33] Why Vinney recommends finding a partner
- Encouragement through the tough times
[26:17] Why you should talk to a syndication attorney before raising money
- Vinney’s syndication attorney: Kim Taylor
[28:00] Vinney’s very first deal
- 14 unites
- Closed on 109 units soon after
[32:14] How Vinney raised money for his first deal
- Hustled!
- Decided not to accept money from friends or relatives
- Designed a great presentation
[38:55] How one happy investor can lead to 30 more
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Vinney's Investor Presentation (PDF)
Connect with Vinney
Phone: 925-766-3518 (call or text)
Email: [email protected]
Vinney’s course on syndication: realestateu.tv
Hi Michael- I have your Deal Analyzer and have listened to some of your
podcasts. I had purchased a 10 unit that I turned into a 14 unit just
prior to getting your Deal Analyzer. Now I’m looking for a 50-100
unit. I wanted to make a suggestion for your podcasts. I’m a lot like
Vinney in that I listen to a ton of podcasts and one thing I like about
certain ones is the ability to speed up the audio. Not just skip but
the actual speed (1.5x, 2x etc). If you could add that to yours I would
definitely listen to more and I’m sure others would as well. Anyway,
great work so far. Please keep it up.
Hi Sal – that’s a good suggestion. Are you talking about when listening to the episode in the browser? Or what are you using to listen to podcasts? (I thought this was the function of whatever podcast app you’re using). Thanks!
Hi Michael- I was listening to the episode on this page of your website. So, just through the browser and I guess through whatever player WordPress uses? Where else can I get your podcasts?
You can download a podcast app for your smart phone – that’s the easiest way to do it because you can listen to other podcasts, too. Hope that helps!
Thank you, Michael. Very inspirational story. I’m very excited about getting into this business and Vinney’s story motivates me even more. I appreciate how he stressed the importance of hustling and networking outside your immediate circle of friends and family to raise money. I also value those relationships, but I think they shouldn’t be denied the opportunity to invest if they want to so I’m thinking about that.
Vinney was soooo awesome! You can tell that he’s got a great spirit about himself! Some great tips and knowledge about forming your first syndication. I’m in the process of forming mine now and I’m excited about the process. Thanks for everything you do!