Artem Tepler is a partner at Schon Tepler Partners, Inc., which he founded in 2009 with Paul Schon. His company has built dozens of homes in the city of Los Angeles and has recently sought to expand into the Sunbelt market. These days, you may know him from his presence on Twitter. Artem recently took the time to talk with Jack Goldstein about his approach to real estate development.
Artem Tepler: I contacted Bob Hunt with the Miami-Dade County Real Estate Investors Association. He was a tough moneylender, investor and ran a network of investors. He provided funding from his hard money company and we shared the profits 50:50. That’s basically the formula: find deals; have capital built by others; and execute.
AT: I think it was much easier to raise money back then. If you had a pulse, they would give you a loan. So I got the classic Ninja loan – no income, no job, no assets. They gave me a loan to buy and renovate the house.
AT: I would probably open a call center somewhere in South America. I would focus on listings from developers who are tearing down properties and building custom homes. I would create the offer on the backend or work with a real estate agent and have them handle the offer.
Precisely. I think it’s all about finding deals. If you find the deal, you will succeed. If you don’t find any deals, you’re in a running business.
JG: Your real estate career expanded prior to the 2007-2009 economic crash. Can you tell us the difference before and after 2008? How do you get out of trouble?
AT: When the market crashes, the only thing that changes is financing. But other than that, I think it’s still the same deal. Buy, repair, sell. Or build now and sell or build and rent.
I got out of it by flipping houses again. I found a partner. Together we built about 50 houses. I got out of debt by building and selling a 21-unit building in West Los Angeles. I used my winnings to pay off any debt that was not generating income.
