How Commercial Real Estate Investors Choose Title Partners | Title Agents Podcast Ep55

In a world where change is the only constant, Mo Shamil stands at the forefront, guiding title professionals to not just grow their businesses, but to master the art of innovation. With every episode, you're handed the keys to unlock unparalleled growth and stay ahead of the curve. Get ready for a transformative journey. Podcasts, where we help top professionals grow, adapt, thrive, and change an industry. I am your host, Mo Shamil, CEO of Alltech National Title.

Today's episode is one you won't want to miss, especially if you're looking to break into, or better understand, the world of commercial real estate. We're joined by Faria Ibrahim, a commercial real estate investor who's not only building an impressive portfolio, but also knows exactly how crucial title professionals are to making those deals happen. She's here to share her insights on navigating title and complex commercial transactions, how investors look for a title partner, and how the evolving real estate landscape is shaping the future. Hello, Faria, and welcome to the Title Agents Podcast. To start off, can you please give us a little background on yourself and where you grew up and your work history, college background, all that good stuff?

Of course. Thank you, Mo. Thank you for having us, having me here. So just a little bit of my background, I was actually born in Bangladesh, so I'm originally from, but I moved here when I was very young, at six years old, and I was in New York. But I really grew up in New Jersey, mostly, went to college, actually, for, as most Southeast Asian background, I did go to school for computer engineering.

However, I knew from early on, I probably wouldn't really pursue that career, but it was more to just kind of carry on the family tradition. And so I finished computer engineering, then I initially wanted to be in the fashion industry, which I did. I did start my clothing line, and I did a little bit of that. But I always knew I would somehow come back to real estate, because partially, my father was a developer overseas, and I always wanted to be involved in that some way, shape, or form. So how there's 80% of millionaires tax return, they're actually real estate background, right?

So that's always been a motivation too, but I was just always fascinated with real estate. I liked to see before and after of distressed homes, and then of course, development side of thing, commercial side. So I started going into local areas, and how to get into the real estate side. So after I graduated, again, I didn't pursue that side, I really went into the fashion, I went into day trading for a little bit, but then I found my way around to the real estate. So I initially started doing residential, fixed and flips, rentals, I was buying a lot of portfolios of single families, and then selling them individually to investors that are more hands off.

So it was a biased package, like 12, 14 of them, and then would sell one or two as almost like rented, and we would manage it. So it was kind of hands off for investors that just kind of wanted to place capital. And then I got into the commercial, I met my one of my mentor that runs a commercial real estate group. And that's how I really got into the commercial side. This podcast is brought to you by struggling to set appointments and generate leads.

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As a successful woman in a male dominated industry, what moments stand out where you had to truly bet on yourself? Um, there, there's, I guess, several, but I would say, you know, sometimes, you know, it's just bliss. And I kind of, I mean, I knew, of course, it's a male dominant industry, but I kind of didn't look at it that way. I kind of went all in and just didn't try to separate myself. I think that helped till a certain moment, I would know, like, for example, if I went to see properties with my male partners, and they would hand the business card to them and not me, like they would think I'm like the system that's just, you know, out there.

So but until I start really talking, and then they realize that I am one of the principles. So you know, I started noticing those things. And of course, we do have to go the extra mile. I think we do have to really prove ourself a little bit extra. But I do try to take it as we also stand out in a way because like we go to events like ICSC, which is one of the retail real estate convention.

And you know, there's 30 to 50,000 people. And I realized as I started going every year, people always remember me because there's not too many women there that are principal or even like, you know, where you need a job. So, you know, people will come over last year, I'm like, yeah, but I also met like 40,000 other people wearing suits. So you know, I try to I try to be very, you know, I try to remember people as much as possible, but sometimes you don't stand out. So I started realizing that that, you know, that is our, I guess, unique superpower to be able to stand out.

But yes, you absolutely have to know what you're talking about being a woman. And I think that applies to everybody. But yes, we do have to kind of overdo it or like, you know, prove ourself extra for sure. What role did mentorship or community play in helping you rise to where you are today? Tremendously, I think having my mentors that are that already had years in the business, and you know, learning from their mistakes, learning from their successes, always, I think took a lot of years out of me having to make those mistakes and help me speed things, definitely.

So I can't imagine where I am that I would be here as, you know, within the years I've been without having the guidance from the mentors that I've worked with. So I think that's, you have to it. And I know, one of the books, one of my favorite books is Who Not How? So by Dan Sullivan, and it's, you know, it's like finding that who can mentor me or who can guide me to get there rather than just how we can get there, right. So definitely, I'm all for mentorship.

That's one of my favorite books as well. Dan Sullivan is one of the brightest minds in business today. I believe so, yeah. Looking back, what values or lessons from your early life or career do you feel shaped your leadership style today? I would say having integrity, and having, you know, being honest, and definitely responsibility, like having the responsibility to carry on, like, for example, we deal with a lot of investors' capital, you know, so we have to be transparent.

And I think having, being able, being intact, having integrity to and, you know, just full transparency, full honesty, whether or not the deal is not doing well, or if there is anything goes wrong, because I feel like, you know, our investors trust us, it's not just a project, it's the sponsors. So I think that really is necessary. So integrity is, you know, I've been, my father has been in business his whole life, and I kind of saw as a, as a young child, that they would rather keep, maintain their integrity over, you know, if they had to let go of a project, or if they had to, you know, let go of some profit margin, but maintaining that integrity is very important. Yeah, that's, I hear so many horror stories, especially in the last couple, couple of years with a high interest rates, a lot of projects went south, and a lot of the, the GPs or developers kind of not communicating, it's exactly the opposite of what you're talking about, it's just when things are bad, people still want communication, like the partners. Yes, for sure, to keeping them informed of what's going on.

And, you know, I mean, especially during COVID, we wrote that way, right, like, we had tenants that we lost tenants, and there are tenants that weren't paying for months, and we had to freeze the giving out the preferred return till, you know, we recoup everything. So it was, you know, it's a partnership. So it's just having that communication, having that transparency and having that integrity. This podcast is made possible by our sponsor. You have worked so hard to build your business.

So why do 70 to 80% of businesses never sell? The truth is, most owners wait too long, they don't plan properly, or they can't find the right partner. At all. the preferred return until we recouped everything. So it's a partnership.

So it's just having that communication, having that transparency and having that equity. This podcast is made possible by our sponsor. You have worked so hard to build your business. So why do 70 to 80% of businesses never sell? The truth is most owners wait too long.

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Visit alltechnationaltitle.com or DM us to start the conversation. Alltech National Title, smart transitions built to last. So how has the commercial real estate landscape changed since you started? And how have you adapted to the changes if there are any changes? So I've been actively on the commercial side of investment, I would say at this point, like eight years or so.

I know I haven't been long enough to see insane amount of changes. But one of the major things, obviously, the interest rate has definitely shifted. I think it's gotten a little bit tougher. The lenders has been much tougher to work with in the past couple of years rather than what it was prior to that. So for us to get in, stabilize an asset and refinancing, we're underwriting the fours versus now it's like high six and sevens.

So the rate definitely changed the valuation of the deals as well as how much we can lend on. And the construction side of things, it's gotten much tougher to get the construction loans, I would say. What's one mindset shift that helped you stay competitive and relevant as the market evolved, especially in the last couple of years? I would say it's just being positive mindset-wise. I mean, I think we can make money in all the market as long as you are consistent and as long as you are adapting to what's happening in the market.

So I know some of my mentors always, I think there's don't ever let disaster go to waste. I might have misspoken the code, but it's basically even in bad times, you can take advantage of that situation and make something of it or just staying positive and see where the opportunity lays. So it's being consistent, it's being positive that no matter what I think we can adjust to the market and there's always opportunity there. So being able to seek out for those opportunities regardless of what's happening. Can you share a pivotal deal or project that taught you something unexpected about resilience or risk tolerance?

Yeah, I would say one that comes to mind, we did a industrial project in Charlotte, North Carolina a few years back and we got a great deal. It was a 40,000 square feet industrial with 10 tenants. It was a nine tenant, so it was one tenant, two spaces. And when we went into the deal, we bought it for 1.8, but it was on the market for 3.6 million for a long time because it had some environmental challenges. So we knew going into the deal that it needed a phase two and we would have either had to fix that or we would have to work with the town.

There's a program called Brownfields Program where the city is liable for that or city is responsible works with you with the program. So when we bought the property, we did get approved, we did get accepted. So there's two steps to the Brownfields Program. So they initially accept you, that is a potential that they will approve you. So then initially accepts you and then there is some steps they give you like you have to maybe get rid of certain tenants who are causing that environmental challenge, environmental issue to become deteriorate.

So we got accepted and then we did everything that we had to do, but we weren't even, and of course it's a government project, they had to assign case, they had to assign like a case agent who would come and do that, but it was right after COVID. So it took very long for them to come and long story short, we never got the full approval. It's usually takes six months. We were almost a year in and we didn't even have an assigned agent for them. We tried to pay for expediting.

So we had to kind of make decision because if we were to go ahead and try to remove and do a full removal of the phase two, all the issues that we had in this high level of benzene and whatnot, it would be somewhere in the 250 to 500,000 to clean that out. We actually did have that in the budget. However, it might've expanded into the next property. And then if we open that kind of warrant, we didn't know where it would go. So when we did all the work, when we knew the tenants, the leases, and as we bought the property, about 1.8, we did some renovations and other to 300,000.

And we would actually, based on the value of the property would have been 4.2, 4.3. And we actually went to many banks that were willing to give us loan based or refinance based on that value. However, because we weren't fully approved for the program, we weren't, no bank would have actually take that on unless we do that. So we're at a dilemma where, and then we started getting a couple of cash offers. The only way we could sell it is if somebody buying it cash and did not have to carry that phase two because no lender at that point would actually loan on that property.

And even at the purchase, we couldn't get a loan. We had a seller finance and our seller financing was coming to terms already, like it was expiring. So we had to make that pivotal decision. So we had a cash buyer that put in an offer at 3 million. It was, I think, 3.1 or 3,550,000 ish.

So we basically took a haircut for almost over a million dollars because we knew the properties were 4.3. So it was, okay, well, do we put another maybe half a million and get to that point? Or do we not open the account of one? Because we don't know what's happening next door, if the environmental is getting into that. So it was a challenge too, or it wasn't.

We weren't happy with taking that offer, but I guess we kind of had to make that decision. So it's a risk versus reward that you're asking since we decided to, because we also had investor's capital in it. So we did not want to risk that. So we ended up actually selling it to that buyer for a little bit over 3 million. I mean, we did well.

We still made a little bit over a million but I think we left a little bit, I would say a good 1.2, 1.3 in the table. But that's the, sometimes we would have to make those hard decisions, especially when you have investor's capitals involved, we do not want to risk it. Absolutely. So let's shift gear to working with title professionals. How important is it for title professionals and investors to understand each other?

Mainly workflows. And where do you see the most friction or opportunity in that relationship? I think it's absolutely, I think it's a teamwork for sure. I think that timing speed is one of the main thing. A lot of times we are in a time crunch and as long as we have all the documents we need from title or the clearance from that on time with our timeline of the due diligence, that's very crucial.

So yes, and it's also having that communication. I think the two main thing that we need from any professional and definitely title is having that documents on time as well as being able to communicate with the professionals. This podcast is proudly sponsored by Need extra hands without extra overhead? Meet Safi Virtual, your on-demand team of virtual assistants trained specifically for the title industry. Our VAs come with foundational knowledge of title insurance, ready to handle admin tasks, client communication, data entry and more.

So you can focus on closing deals, not paperwork. Scale smarter, work faster and cut costs without sacrificing quality. Visit SafiVirtual.com or DM us to find your perfect VA. Safi Virtual, expert support, tailored for title professionals. What advice would you give to women entering commercial real estate or title work, especially those trying to make their mark?

I would say just go for it. Don't think that just because you're a woman, you have to do it other ways or you would have to, like you can't do it. I would say just there's a limit regardless. And I think we're in a world today where we have all the opportunities to not say knowledge as we can get and really just go for it. Well, what do you think title professionals need to understand better about working with commercial investors like yourself?

Don't think that just because you're a woman, you have to do it other ways, or you would have to, like you can't do it. I would say just there's a limit regardless, and I think we're in a world today where we have all the opportunities to not say knowledge as we can get and really just go for it. Well, what do you think top professionals need to understand better about working with commercial investors like yourself? I would say it's basically the same thing. I think it's we're always having timely reports and being able to get everything we need within that because obviously we have a certain amount of days for due diligence and we need to understand whether or not we have to do, if there's anything that comes up in title, we have to go back to the attorney.

So we wanna give ourself enough room for those. So as long as things are timely and have it in that communication, being able to prepare back if there's any questions we have right away. What's one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you started investing? I would say I would focus on few markets and really build on those markets. I initially, and obviously my backyard is one of the toughest market in New York and North Jersey where I am.

I would still start building here more. So I went outside of my state where I thought I could. And anyway, your money goes much further if you go to Florida, Texas or in Southern States. And I have, and I'm grateful that I was able to do those. But I would say I would focus on one or two criteria of the category, one or two criteria of the real estate.

And then also few markets. I was all over the place and now I'm more focused now. What's the biggest myth people have about commercial investing or breaking into it? I know it may sound overwhelming or scary or too big or the numbers may be a little bigger, more zeros. Yeah, definitely more commas and zeros.

I would say one of the myths is that you should start in residential, then come to commercial. And that is, yes, it helps, but it's not a prerequisite. Like you don't have to, there are, I know plenty that never did residential and does very well in commercial. So you don't have to go to a residential to come to commercial. So that's I think one of the one that I always hear.

I've never done a real estate, not even residential. Like you don't have to. What advice do you have for title professionals who want to build relationships with high-level investors like yourself? Networking, I would say definitely networking and just see who actually, who has track records of getting things done. Because I mean, of course, we all face that.

We all go to deals that we understood diligence and it may not work out. But like, who's actually closing deals. So I would say definitely being more involved, having more networks, networking is definitely one of the best way to get into this business. So what are some of the must-go-to conferences, I guess, for title professionals that want to kind of get into that space? Is there like one or two that are going to stand?

I need to talk about CES, is it commercial? ICSC, which is international. Yeah, so it's International Council of Shopping Center. So I would say, so they are, the large one is held in May in Vegas. And then there's also regional ones.

I would say that's definitely one of the top one where all, definitely all retail real estate investors are there. But plenty of others like multifamily and industrials there too. There's NAOP, that's for more geared towards industrial investors. But I think ICSC is for me, I think if you are consistently in ICSC, it's just so much exposure that it's almost like. Today's episode is sponsored by.

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I would say definitely focus on a specializes. I wouldn't, I like to diversify. So I wouldn't stick to just one category, but one or two and not, I don't think, you could be mediocre in everything or you could be really great in one thing. So I would say focus on one or two categories and once it's, it can evolve, right? So you can start in certain categories.

You really understand the process of the full transaction because the process of the transaction is same whether it's multifamily or retail or industrial or office. But once you really go through several deals and you really become like, you understand the process, you can always expand into others. But I think if you start with everything at once, it's, you can really, I did that myself. That's how I know I'm like, that was probably one state that slow you down too. So yes, I would say focus on a couple of categories.

You and I are part of multiple different mastermind groups that I'm a big believer in masterminds. Can you share like the, why do you join mastermind and like what impact it had on your career? Yeah, I would say for sure, networks from there and finding like-minded individual, those who are striving for better, going to elevate themselves, surrounding yourself. Like, it's your, is it average of five people you hang out with, right? So, and proximity is power as Tony Robin always says, that's one of my favorite quote.

So I would say definitely, being in proximity with those who are getting things done, being accomplished, it's just motivates you and elevates you. For my commercial real estate group that I'm part of. And so, we meet quarterly and it's like a whole, it's almost like an accountability and like, it's almost like a friendly competition of like, okay, I got this much done this quarter. So it's like, we come back so fired up every time because like, oh, they're doing a lot more. So we're, and again, it's the, we cheer each other on at the same time or like, it's almost everybody's experience we're learning from, what challenges they face this year at this quarter versus, or maybe like, hey, I'm sharing contacts as well, right?

Like, I'm getting this much for the roof work. Somebody has a better deal they're getting, why not have them? So it's just, it's almost like a sisterhood, brotherhood. We come into a close of this episode. We come into a couple of last questions.

Do you have a favorite book or one that you read recently that stands out? I would say one of my favorite, I think I just talked about Bernard Howe, definitely one of the best books that I've ever read and interests my career. One of my favorite books is the One Thing by Gary Keller. Yeah, yes. I think that was kind of shaped in my mind from going from all different type of business or so many other things that I was doing that like focus on one thing until you're really great at that and then expand in.

So that really helped shape my focus on commercial real estate. Awesome. And how about a favorite quote or quotes? I know you mentioned a couple in our conversation, but. I think one of the ones that I always go by is we rise by raising others.

I don't actually know who it's by, but it really did strike me. So I love that one. And then yes, Fox News Power, for sure. How about the last words of wisdom, especially to women in real estate or title or other professions to empower them? Yeah, just be unstoppable and just go for what you, I don't know, if your dream's to be in commercial, go for it.

I know it might be specific or not specific. It might be very male-dominated industry, but I think we're making our mark. So just don't let anything stop you. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much, Faria, for joining us.

We truly appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. That's a wrap of another episode of TeleAsia's podcast. A huge thank you to Faria Ibrahim for sharing her real world insights and investor perspective on what really matters in commercial deals.

Remember to share this episode with your colleagues and friends and please give us a review. That helps our show grow. And thank you again. See you next episode. And that's a wrap on today's journey with Mo Shamil from the Title Agents podcast, reminding you that mastering the art of innovation is key in the title industry's fast-paced world.

If you're finding it tough to keep up with the changes and challenges, remember, you're not alone. Our calendar is open for you. Find the link in the show notes and let's connect. Make sure to hit subscribe to not miss out on strategies that elevate and insights that empower. Together.

So, see you next episode. And that's a wrap on today's journey with Mo Shamil from the Tidal Agents podcast, reminding you that mastering the art of innovation is key in the tidal industry's fast-paced world. If you're finding it tough to keep up with the changes and challenges, remember, you're not alone. Our calendar is open for you. Find the link in the show notes and let's connect.

Make sure to hit subscribe to not miss out on strategies that elevate and insights that empower. Together, we'll navigate the future of the industry. I look forward to our next meeting in the upcoming episode.