Stuck, scared and uninspired to venture out into the game of real estate? Want to put your life a notch higher but you’re having second thoughts? Well, here’s another success story from one of my friends Nizan Mosery. Get inspired and learn a thing or two from him as you build yourself in the business.
Nizan’s Life
Nizan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in the lower east side of Manhattan. He was raised by two entrepreneurial parents that never graduated high school. His mother is a survivor of the holocaust and his father was born in the 20’s in Israel. By the time his father was 13, he was already out of school and he started to work. They never really had a formal education. But they understood that you go out and you build something for yourself. You don’t build anything for anybody else.
His mother had her own needlepoint and knitting store. His father had his own clothing stores. He sold anything from bubblegum to underwear to jeans to pots and pans, whatever you can imagine all in one roof. As kids, they were always brought up with the idea that there’s two types of people in this world: those that pay rent and those that collect rent. They we’re taught to collect. That was the kind of mentality that he grew up with.
Growing up in New York, his family bought a commercial real estate. He worked from collecting the garbage and dumping it to building the walls, to demolition, to leasing up commercial spaces, to collecting rent.
Although Nizan went to college in New York, he didn’t graduate in a university. It wasn’t his thing. He knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur.
He was 25 when his father passed away. He started asking questions like, “What’s it all about?” At that time, he was working for Lehman Brothers in New York while they were still alive. He just didn’t understand why people were doing all this. So, he sold his portfolio, got rid of his apartment, and moved to Israel for about a year. In the beginning, he was traveling to search for himself, to see who he was, and what he wanted.
He went out of the country for 15 years after his father passed away. He decompressed and tried to figure out what life is all about. He transferred to India after that and continued traveling for about six years. He came back to Israel after two months and went back to work. While traveling he met his wife in Portugal and had two beautiful daughters. Then they decided to come back to the States in 2009
After returning to the States, he opened a boutique residential company. Then opened with a partner a RE/MAX commercial franchise. After he met Laura, his business partner, they opened Cornerstone which is the acquisition leg that buys and sells apartment buildings, hotels, marinas, things of that nature.
The experiences he had while traveling opened his eyes and made him see what life is all about, what we’re here for. “We’re here to make our environment, our world, our universe better than when we came into it. That’s one of the missions of our companies that we want to give back to our residents and to our investors, to make their life better.”
Nizan’s story tells us that in life, we must set goals that not only make our life better but make the lives of others better too. His explorations and traveling helped him shape the backbone of his life and led him to the road where he is now. Getting lost is not a bad thing, because in Nizan’s experience, he went away only to realize what really mattered to him. It made him see what he really wanted out of life.
His Steps to Success
So, if you want to start out, maybe you can learn a thing or two from Nizan. Here, he teaches us five important things when venturing into the real estate business:
One, if you’re starting out new and real estate is a new field for you, read as much as you can. Educate yourself. Educate yourself on all the different types of real estate opportunities that exist because it’s not just one. Single-family, commercial, apartment buildings, hotels, self-storage, restaurants, office spaces, triple-neck deals, shopping malls, vacant lands, agricultural lands to name a few.
Two, find a sponsor. A sponsor who has the experience and the net worth if we don’t have it. If you’re starting out, we usually don’t have it.
Three, find a really strong team. When you’re going out and you’re raising capital, and you’re talking to the sellers, the brokers, your investors, if you’re the lone wolf, everything is you. People don’t like to see a lone wolf. That is the reason to build a team. It can be a very lonely business. Having a team invigorates you to be better, sharper, more in driving the bus, getting everybody’s driving to do, “Here’s our goal. Let’s get to it.”
Four, build relationships. That sums it up for money raising. People aren’t going to give you their money, people are not going to open their network to you if they don’t like you or trust you or have a relationship with you. You also need to have a track record. If you don’t have a track record, it’s okay. But that’s why you want to have that team.
Five, it’s always is about serving others and creating relationships. The more you serve, the better you are to become a better servant and helping them with whatever they need. It’s such a reciprocal effect because people want to help you. Especially they feel obligated a lot of times if you help them first.
Yes. It doesn’t matter what part of real estate you get involved in. Just remember to look at passive residual income as a gold. The second thing is never, ever, ever quit. The minute you quit you are not successful. The journey is what makes you successful, it’s not the destination.
Interested? Check out Nizan’s radio show, The Traveling Investor show. Live every Thursday, 1:00 PM Eastern. Download the app or you can listen live over the internet at w4cyradio.com.
