Investing In Senior Housing With Vinney “Smile” Chopra
Vinney “Smile” Chopra joins us to discuss why he got into senior housing development, the differences between traditional multifamily and senior housing, and what he means by the coming “silver tsunami”.
Vinney “Smile” Chopra, a mechanical engineer, MBA, CA RE broker, Author and Host of Two Podcasts and founder of 5 companies came to the US from India with $7 in his pocket. A strong believer in the power of positive thought and selfless actions, Vinney’s life has been a highly inspiring rags to riches story.
There’s a reason Vinney’s nickname is “Mr. Smiles” and “Mr. Enthusiasm” which is evident even through just hearing his demeanor in his voice. He has always believed in the individuals’ ability to shape the world around them through positive thought and selfless actions.
As a multifamily syndication expert, he has facilitated over 28 successful syndication deals. He has acquired and manages a very successful real estate investment portfolio worth over $330 million. More than 4100 doors. In 2020, His passion increased in developing new businesses in Senior Living and Hospitality spaces along Multifamily like before.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra is an international best-selling author “Apartment Syndication Made Easy: A Step by Step Guide” is a concise account of the author’s journey from $7 to $250 million. In this book, the readers will find a step by step guide on how to make apartment syndication easy and take a business to the next level.
Vinney also hosts two podcasts of his own called “Apartment Syndication Made Easy” and “Mr. Smiles Motivation Talk show”. He has given over 11,000 speeches and now has been interviewed over 130 times on various podcast and radio shows.
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Kent
____Full Transcript Below____
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
… is sweeping through USA and around the world. What I mean by that is 10,000 baby boomers, they are the people who are less than 65 years of age, every midnight 10,000 turn 65 in our country.
Kent Ritter:
Welcome to Ritter on Real Estate, the show about how to passively invest like a pro. On each episode I interview real estate experts to give their top investing advice, strategies, and tools and I break down their insights into practical steps to avoid the pitfalls and make better investments. I want to help you passively invest like a pro. This is Ritter on Real Estate. I’m your host, Kent Ritter.
Kent Ritter:
Welcome to Ritter on Real Estate. I’m your host, Kent Ritter, and today we have a very special guest here. We have Mr. Vinney Chopra, who has a long, a long history in real estate. 40 years of just incredible success, including 28 syndications, 4100 doors. Wow! And he’s created a completely vertically integrated model in which he’s not only acquiring but he’s also managing himself. And in addition to that, not that that’s not enough, he’s written two books on real estate, on the subject of how to be successful in real estate.
Kent Ritter:
And he also has, not only one podcast, but two podcasts. So, Vinney obviously is a very busy guy, but giving a ton a value all over the place. So, thank you for stopping in here, to Ritter on Real Estate, and giving us some of your value today. Thanks, Vinney.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Thank you, Ken, thank you. I’m humbled to be here with you. And we met actually face to face at the dinner table last year, actually. Was it last year? Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
It was. Yeah. October.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah, October.
Kent Ritter:
Yeah.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
And that was wonderful, and I’m so glad and I hope I can bring value to your audiences. Yes.
Kent Ritter:
Absolutely. And so, Vinney is going to talk to us about an interesting topic, very timely these days. We’re going to talk about senior housing, and why that has become such a buzzword, why it’s so important right now, and why Vinney is changing his focus, I don’t think entirely, but moving from traditional multi-family, into really driving a focus on senior housing. So, I’m really excited to get into that. Before we do, Vinney, though, why don’t you tell us about yourself, try to compress those 40 years and hit the highlights.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I would love to. I came from India about 43 years back. Kent, I’m a mechanical engineer, I came here with $7 in my pocket, some of your audience might know. And I actually came here to do my MBA in marketing from George Washington University. While I was doing that, to raise money for tuition I sold Bible books and encyclopedias door to door, knocking on doors, and left and right, and that actually converted me. I liked that, to be outside, and relationship-building, things like that. I put my engineering in the box literally about 43 years back and never have looked back.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I became a motivational speaker, a salesperson, a director, a partner in a big company, and so on. And I retired from there in 2015. But because I was doing motivational speeches … I’ve given over 11,000 speeches, but I just wanted to also be in real estate, bigger. We were having single-family homes for over 40 years, here and there we will buy more and more. But in 2004 I said, “Okay, let me become a broker, a real estate broker.” That time I had to make a decision. “Do I sell residential or do I go commercial?” And guess what? I chose the right thing. I can just thank God that 16 years back that I just said, “Okay, multifamily it is.”
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
As an engineer it just made sense to me, the economies of scale. One transaction rather than 20 different homes’ transactions and 20 different loan qualifications. With multifamily you just do one deal for 50 units, or 12 units, and that’s all I did, by the way. I learned that it’s this and I didn’t know anything about anything. I’m telling you. Is everybody listening to me? I didn’t know COC, I didn’t know ROI, I didn’t know cash-on-cash. Nothing. But now I know a lot.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
But I went into multifamily, bought 14 units, $480,000 about 12 years back, in the crash. In the crash that was happening, a recession, I bought that and now, thank God, we have over 4100 doors, and then also we managed and we sold some also, and then have about a 330 million portfolio, but I’m very excited about senior living, like you said. We’ll talk about that.
Kent Ritter:
That’s incredible, Vinney. Such a wonderful story, coming from India and building all that you have. So, I’m excited to hear more about how you’ve done that, and what you’re doing now. So, let’s jump into senior living. Now, why the focus? Why switch focus from obviously something you’re very good at, you’ve built up 4100 doors. Why now focus on this other niche here?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Good point. Very good point. And actually I’ll still be buying multifamily. I do want to let the audience know that we had 14 units, for 180. Last year I bought a $52 million deal, one deal, 324 units in Orlando with my partner. We did 50/50 partnership, because it’s a pretty big chunk, $52 million, in June. And then we bought 35 million again in December. So, we are still looking out for multifamily, just to let you know. It’s been very tough, it’s been tough to really find some great deals that make the numbers work. So, that’s with my multifamily still. I’m very excited about it and I want to buy more.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
But senior living, I’ve been looking at it for about a year and a half. The Silver Tsunami is sweeping through USA and around the world. What I mean by that is 10,000 baby boomers, they are the people who are less than 65 years of age. Every midnight 10,000 turn 65 in our country, in USA. 10,000 every night. Every night. So, we have a pent-up demand of senior living. Aha! So, 65 years-plus, we are having almost 54 million people right now. It’s going to be 100 million in the next … Every 10 years, if we look at the projections, we will have about a 50% increase in this number every 10 years.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, there is a huge demand. The demographics are changing, Big Shift Ahead is a good book. Yeah, A Big Shift, I think is the book. I read it, there are a lot of great graphs. Maybe your audience might like to look into that. But the biggest thing is, along with 65-plus, that can be into the adult living, 55-plus adult living, and there is the 75-plus, and 85-plus, and 95-plus, those are graphs also. We are concentrating on assisted-senior living. Not the ones with acute care, with doctors and rehab centers or nursing homes. We are not into that at all. We are just taking a market share of about 38% out of 100% of the seniors, 38.1% is what we are looking at. That’s where we are going ground up, ground up building luxury senior livings.
Kent Ritter:
Got you. And so, I guess, what’s the type of person that lives in an assisted-living facility? How is that different from the other types of senior living?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I would love to. Love to. See, what happens as we get older and older, of course, seniors, many definitions say it’s 55-plus adult living, active adult living. People are retiring. Right? I don’t know if that’s true now because of all the shifts in the market and all, how much people have to retire on. But 65 above people are still healthy. So, they love to have their independence, they might do … We call them as … Selling their home, from bigger home to smaller home, or they might move into some communities of the apartments as seniors. So, they’re downsizing. Downsizing.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Assisted-senior living is in the range of 75 to 85, to 90 years of age. They’re healthy Americans, healthy, all of us right there. And you don’t need doctors every day. Or you don’t need rehabs and things like that. So, that’s the niche we are working on, where they could have a nice living in an apartment complex, which I would love to share with you, it’s actually assisted senior-living apartment. That’s all it is. It’s multifamily, I think it’s called, because we are building 90 units, or 100 units, or 110 units only. No more than that, depending on the need that’s there in a particular emerging market.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Emerging market, as you can say, in this case is how many seniors are there? They’re not working. So, we are not going after jobs, jobs, jobs. In multifamily we go after jobs, jobs, jobs. But in senior living we go into find out where the seniors are, where they’re moving to. So, for example, from Canada, from New York, from all the way, Washington, D.C., Virginia, people are moving to Florida, for example. From California seniors are moving to Arizona, for example, because of the warmer climate. And then also in Texas, a lot of people are moving into Texas. So, we are concentrating in Virginia, a lot of people are in the North Carolinas right there. Then Florida, and Texas, and Arizona.
Kent Ritter:
Got you. Okay. So, you’re targeting four markets based on just the numbers of in-bound seniors moving there.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Moving there, and they are already living there. They are ready to now move into downsizing, if I may say that. And then in the assisted living, the ones we build we build it from ground up. So, it takes us six, to nine, or 10 months just to do the market study to find out what’s the product in that city, and then how many seniors in that 75, 85, 90 years of age, what will be their growth pattern with all the data. We are very data-driven. We have to be, because our senior communities are not built two years from now.
Kent Ritter:
Right. Right.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, [crosstalk 00:12:01]. Yeah, you’re right. So, we go to the building permits, we go to the councils, we go to all over the place, and find out if there is a need for it, first of all. Then we get a third party to do the feasibility study, because we are looking into millions of dollars in buying the land, getting construction loans, and then building them. Right?
Kent Ritter:
Yeah.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, fortunately, I would like to mention to you, I really believe in love attraction. So, I’ve been sending out signals like crazy out in the universe, that Vinney wants to get into senior living, and I found a great partner in senior living-
Kent Ritter:
Okay.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
… who has been building it what I’m just mentioning to you. I have found a partner who has done 23 of them. But I want to build with him the first one. He has done 23 of them for the last eight, nine years. Build Senior Living is this company. Build Senior Living, just like the name says, and I’m the one fundraiser. I’m the one who can raise money from investors, so we are meshing together as a partnership, where I can bring millions of dollars. I have raised seven million in seven hours. That’s my best ever, so far.
Kent Ritter:
Wow! [crosstalk 00:13:22].
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Seven million in seven hours.
Kent Ritter:
That’s pretty incredible.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Thank you, thank you. So, we are combining heads. We are … His expertise is coming in building, and development, and operations side. And my thinking is coming with the syndication side, and my investors coming into the builds together, because we are one.
Kent Ritter:
Got you. So, thinking about it as an investor, what is it … What’s most important for investors to understand about senior living, and are there things that they need to be understanding that are different than if they were evaluating typical multifamily?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I’m so glad you say. Yeah, Kent, definitely. See, there is a stability in senior living. The one we are doing, assisted-senior living, the residents come and they don’t leave. So, there is no delinquency. There is zero concessions, because you set the price and the senior living stabilized ones like ours are giving better returns than the new. Brand-new multifamily might give 12% IRR, or 13% IRR, and then they will not get cashflow for two or three years in the multifamily, if you’re building brand new. But senior living, we can build everything in 12 to 14 months. So, what we do is we don’t take investors’ money until we are ready to break the ground.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, we work hard with our money and all that, and do all the feasibility studies, and all the monies, all the permits are taken at our cost, and the land is bought, millions of dollars of land is bought by us. Then, when we are ready to put the shovel in the ground, there is a green light from everybody, then we raise the money. So, investors have very low risk, very low risk, because we are going to build it in 12 to 14 months, and we are selling them in three years. So, we build them in 14 months, and we manage them … We have in-house … Vertically integrated again. We manage them, and then we can sell them at a very good price and give 30 to 40% back to the investors in equity gain in just a very quick timeframe, a very quick timeframe. Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
Did you say 30 to 40%?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah. Actually, it’s 30 to 40% equity gain, and then cashflow, we can give cashflow only second and third year. We cannot give in the first year because it’s dirt. Because we are putting shovels in the ground and building it, like that. We have 30 to 40 workers actually at one time. When we put the shovel in the ground, it’s not just four, five, 10 people showing up there. We have 30, to 40, to 50 workers working right away, because we are working to build it together in a shorter period of time.
Kent Ritter:
And when you sell these in three years, who is the buyer for a property like this? Who are you selling to?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Ooh, that’s so wonderful. I’m so glad. The [inaudible 00:16:38]. A lot of [inaudible 00:16:40] who are into the senior-assisted living, they have been liking our product, my partner’s product, Mr. [Ameron 00:16:47] is his name. And the good part is that the quality is so good. If I may say, Kent, these are the ones they have a hall with big … Dining halls and compounds outside. Only single story. We never build two story or three story at all. We don’t believe in that. I think it’s very-
Kent Ritter:
That makes sense.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
… good for the older, our seniors, our motto is, “Let’s spoil the generation that has spoiled us.” That’s our motto. So, we want to give them the best of the best, with private dining halls, with sunrooms, with spas, with movie theater inside the senior living. The salons, and then also we give a library, billiard rooms, and all these. With a putting gree also right there. The water fountains, and then waterworks, and a swimming pool in our facilities. So, we are giving them … We are spoiling the generation in the 80, 85, and 90 years of age that they can have a wonderful space.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
But guess what? We don’t charge anything extra. So, investors should know that we don’t charge for all these amenities separately at all. It’s all included in their $4,000 or $4,500. It includes three meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks. It includes ADLs, all the daily life activities. It includes all the utilities of their unit, and not the telephone. And it includes nurses there also. We are not required to have a nurse, but we put a nurse also in our assisted living. And then we have a full transportation. We buy the van also for the community. Then everything is all furnished. Everything, except for their own unit. That’s the thing. Studio units, one bedroom units, or two-bedroom units.
Kent Ritter:
And what do you … Obviously you’re getting more revenue per unit.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yes.
Kent Ritter:
You said 4 to 4,500 or so a month.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
What do your operating expenses look like, though? Maybe explain what the business model looks like, and then how the operating expenses relate to that.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
You’re right. Totally. I would love to compare it to multifamily. See, like in a multifamily people might pay 1,300 to 1,600. But we are collecting 4,000, so the element of … The whole kitchen is there. We don’t make profits, but we have a chef, we have all the servers, we have caregivers. So, usually the ratio is 2 to 14. We do 3 to 12. So, every five of our residents, we have a caregiver. Then we have all the staff and everything. And in the COVID, I’m so glad we are working right now with the COVID.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Some people have asked me, and investors also, “Vinney, what have you done?” So, we want to let the investors know we have totally shut down. Totally shut down. Known family members can come in from outside to meet with their mom or dad in the center. We had to lock down because we don’t want anything to … And we have no COVID positives at all in our centers. We have 14 of them right now that we manage. And then, sometime even the birthdays were done through the window, so that the family was outside and we even contribute the walkie-talkies so that they can talk to the parents. But with put their health … We wanted to make sure that they understand why we are doing it. So, it’s a great opportunity for investors to invest into these deals, which are giving much better returns than even the brand-new multifamily.
Kent Ritter:
Interesting [crosstalk 00:20:59].
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
We are looking at 17 IRR. 17, to 18, 19% IRRs. That’s huge.
Kent Ritter:
Over three years?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Over three years only. Yes, sir. Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
Wow. That’s definitely something worth looking into.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
So, I want to change course a little bit with you, because you mention you had such success raising money.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yes.
Kent Ritter:
And again, I’m thinking about this as an investor, but obviously if you’ve had such success raising money, there must be things that you’re doing that … The reason why investors keep coming back.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
[crosstalk 00:21:35].
Kent Ritter:
Yeah, what I’m interested in knowing are what are the … Talk about your process as you bring in investors, your communication with investors, your education. What are you doing to bring investors along with you that they do come back?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I appreciate that. Kent, I have only 168 investors. Can you believe it? In the last 12 years I have … I just thought about it, when I was starting out 12 years back that I want to get 100,000 as minimum that investors can put in. Even though I found out someone trying to put 50, but they had 100, they sometime try you out. But then I also thought, “If they can put 100, their friends can also afford 100, 200, 300 like that. So, I’m fortunate to say my whole circle of friends and all these investors, and they have all their friends, and their relatives, and all like that, they are very rich people. So, they’re able to give me now 200, and 400, and 500 in the deals from their retirement funds, from their 401K, and so forth.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, what I do is that … My streak is very simple. It’s very simple. As a syndicator you have to have fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the money of your investors. That’s huge, huge, huge. And I love this field because I’ve done it 28 times and I’ve not lost anybody’s money, not a single one. The good part is, I’ve given returns of 18 to 43% per year. But I cannot promise those kind of returns anymore because the prices of multifamily have gone up so high. But we are still saying, “17 to 20% IRR” in our deals that we bought even last year. So, we buy good, good deals.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, what I do is, I have quarterly meetings with my investors, live, Zoom meetings, we record them, and if the investors could not come they could still watch them at their convenience. When we buy a property, like we’ll be constructing these ones, I will have quarterly meetings with my investors to let them know first of all, when we are ready to put the shovel in the ground I’ll have a meeting, and I’ll go there, videotape things, so I bring the property to them. Aha! I bring the pictures and everything so that my investors can sleep nicely at nighttime, and our whole business, 12 years, is totally transparent.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
My investors can ask for any books, any records, any bank accounts, any bids. Anything. So, that’s how I built my company, with total transparency, and they love that. I even go over the closing statements with them. Like after we bought the $52 million deal, we went over the closing statement, “These are the different … Where the monies went, and this is where have opened four accounts of operations, and cap-X, and the investors’ account, and the savings account for deposits.” All that. So, we do quarterly meetings and that gives them courage.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
And I like the investors to check us out. For any syndication group you want to see who the principals are, because the principals will make or break that investment. Their track record is important, but more so important, how many people are in the kitchen. I caught it. Sometime too many cooks in the kitchen, and if the partnerships don’t work out, that will be detrimental to the investors, the passive investors. Because I’m teaching my passive investors to look at nine different points as they invest money. And that-
Kent Ritter:
[crosstalk 00:25:43].
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah. It’s very, very important to see the culture and to see … Talk to other people who have invested with the people before they put their hard-earned money. It’s a very hard-earned money. Even $5 is hard-earned money. We’re talking about 100, 200, $500,000 like that. Yeah. Please ask me some more, then I’ll explain more. Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
Yeah. So, what are some of those questions that passive investors should be asking to your sponsors before they enter a deal with them?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Very good point. Very, very good point. I would say definitely you want to see them … Now everything is on social media, everything. So, please look at their LinkedIn profile, their Facebook profile, their companies’ reviews. Ask the syndicators to give you referrals to show so that they can talk to the people who have worked with them before. Find out who the principals are. How many people are in the general partnership? That’s a big thing I find in learning from other of my investors who have invested in other deals. They say, the cash call. Please ask the investor have they done any type of cash call? Which is not anything I have done at all in 28 syndications, and I never will do a cash call.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
The principals, the syndicator should know what they are talking about. Ask about the risk factors, ask about their underwriting skills, and why they chose that product. They need to disclose everything. Who is on the loan? Huge, huge, huge. Who is getting the loan? Who is bringing the liquidity to the deal? Because now the lenders ask 12 months of liquid assets of the mortgage, 12 to 16 months. So, it’s going to be pretty hard now for a lot of syndicators to really raise the money and also qualify for loans.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
We have a big portfolio, we get a better treatment. Sorry to say that, but the more you are in the higher level, your interest rates are different, your terms are different. We bought these properties and got 3.72% loan for 30-year amortized, 10-year fixed, five years of interest only. Five years of interest only. And 80/20 loans or 70/30 loans. Easy loans. You know?
Kent Ritter:
Yeah. No, that’s fantastic. So, you brought up something that actually sparked another question for me. So, you talked about risk factors, understanding the risk factors. Going back to what we were talking about with senior housing, we heard obviously a lot of positives, a lot of demand dynamics that are driving that. But what are the risk factors in senior housing?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I’m so glad you asked that. Again, the biggest risk factor for anybody who is developing the product … I say product, or senior living, is how good research did they do? How good the feasibility study have they done? Because you are bringing the assisted living two years out, almost two years out, because it’s about eight to 12 months, maybe even more than 12 months. So, really finding if the cities will be approving all these, and building permits and all … And going through noise, or pollutions, and you know all those. Right?
Kent Ritter:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, it’s very important whoever is doing this they are really … They know what they’re doing. That’s the first thing. The second thing is, who are the principals? Again, for the passive investors I’ll ask them to ask the developers, me, or anybody, who are the principals and what’s their track record. Again, it just multiplies everything. The biggest thing could be if the demand goes lower in that place.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
The key thing I would like to say to the investors is that most of the cities we are building in, they have old senior-living communities. Older, like 10 years old, 15 years old, 20 years old. And they are smaller and they are not as up-to-date where they can put the kind of things that we can bring, like movie theater, the spas, the salons, the sunrooms, the compounds. We have three different … They are called courtyards, where people can really go out and go within the community, inside. Because outside is outside but within the community there are three different courtyards, and there are walkways which are double the wheelchair. So, the walkways are also so big, huge. We take five to seven acres of land to put 90 units.
Kent Ritter:
Wow!
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, that’s where we are a little bit different than others, so the risk factor is less, I would say. The other factor, other passive investors might ask us, “What are you doing with the attrition?” So, what we’ll do is, once we are 75% completely built, 25% is left, we have a whole marketing department that starts advertising. So, like the one … I can talk about the facts in this podcast, because I’m not selling anybody anything at all. We just finished a Cape Coral, Florida, project. 88 units, and it’s 50% pre-leased. What does that mean? That means we already have … Not even opened the center yet, which will be three weeks from today that we’ll open the center. But we have 52% occupancy already.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
So, the day we open we’ll be able to break even or maybe even make a little bit of profit, because in senior living there are a lot more personnel we need. The caregivers, the chef, the administrative people, nurse, all that. So, in other operations being vertically aligned or integrated, we have our own marketing department, and the flyers, and marketing and all that, so that when we are … Our goal is, within the second year to get to 70%. So, actually we start making money right away at 50%, by the way, in senior living units.
Kent Ritter:
Okay.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah. So, that’s with less risk. Risks can be there. Actually, there could be more risks, like if the downfall comes. To be very truthful, we have found that now with COVID also, some states are allowing us to keep on building. They’re not even shutting us down. They’re saying there’s such a big need that they are giving us approvals at the senator level, or [inaudible 00:33:07] level in the city. They are giving us the letters to keep on building it. So, there is a big, big demand. I think we will never be able to satisfy this demand for the next 40 years.
Kent Ritter:
Wow. That’s really interesting to hear that. I appreciate your bringing this topic to us, and telling us about senior living, and it’s definitely a new asset class for me to look into, but it sounds like there could be some real possibilities there.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Totally.
Kent Ritter:
I appreciate that.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yes.
Kent Ritter:
Well, Vinney, as we close things up, I’d love to … I’ve got a segment called Keys to Success. And I’ve got a few questions I’d like to ask you, though.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
[crosstalk 00:33:47].
Kent Ritter:
The first one is … And we covered this a little bit earlier, but if you only had one question as you were looking at the deal or a sponsor, what’s the one thing that you would ask the sponsor?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I would say the culture of the team. I think that’s so important. Who are the principals, and how long they’ve been together, how they found each other, and what’s their track record?
Kent Ritter:
Great. What are you most proud of?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Oh, my God. I think I’m really proud of marrying my wife. I’m very, very proud.
Kent Ritter:
Wonderful.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I came here as a young boy, and I had a good engineering degree and MBA, but I really needed a great life partner. And so, I’m so thankful. We’ve been married 40 years. We just celebrated in April, this month, April 3rd was our 40th anniversary.
Kent Ritter:
Congratulations.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
We have two children, Neal and Monica. And Neal is 36, Monica is 33. They both went to Berkeley and UCLA, so we are very proud of what our family … And that’s my number-one pride. Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
That’s fantastic. Did your wife come from India with you?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
She did. No, I met her here. I was living in Ohio, and she was in Toronto, then she came to Pittsburgh. I met her and we married in three … We got engaged in three, four months, and then we got married in six months. In Indian culture we don’t take too much. We just go for it.
Kent Ritter:
When you know you know. Right?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah, when you know you know. And 40 years now we’re married, and very happy, contented, and that’s our success.
Kent Ritter:
That’s awesome. Very cool. What books should everyone read?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I’m so glad you’re saying that. Of course, the books I read … Miracle Morning is a great, great book, by Ken Elrod, my buddy. Of course, one book which really made a big difference in my life was [Think in Courage 00:35:51]. I keep them all. I bought this book in ’78, 1978. So, I have kept the same books. One book which has really helped me a lot is the Magic … It’s even yellowish, as you can see the color. I bought this book in June of 1978. Right there, somebody gave me or something. I always write the name and my signature or something.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Another book, which I’m reading right now, is … Of course, my book. Oh, by the way … No. Actually, it’s Daily Kindness. Somebody, one of my good friend, an attorney friend, gave me this one, Daily Kindness book. So, it’s got really 365 days of compassion, photos, and wisdom to enrich your spirit. So, I really believe in what we put our mind to, that really brings you the best things in life to give to others around you. And then you are focused. Every day you’re really focused to give your best to everybody. Yeah.
Kent Ritter:
It’s a great message. Last question. What’s your number-one key to success?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
I would say massive action. I’m the kind … I’m very fast [inaudible 00:37:06], by the way. I think I might have mentioned I’m coming out with a new book, which is Positivity. My [crosstalk 00:37:12] said that when this book became an international top seller, she says, “Vinney, that’s a good book on apartments, but it’s for a limited audience. You have lived with me for 39 years,” because it’s last year she told me, “and you should write a book on positivity.” So, I think it’s positivity taking massive action.
Kent Ritter:
Awesome. I think that’s a great message. You’ve got to. It’s the only way you go from $7 to the portfolio you’ve built. Right?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
[crosstalk 00:37:47].
Kent Ritter:
Awesome. Vinney, so how can folks get ahold of you if they want to learn more about what you’re doing?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Sure. Actually, my first name is Vinney, V-I-N-N-E-Y, Chopra is my last name, C-H-O-P-R-A, like Deepak Chopra, who is a very renowned author and a great doctor, and a great motivational speaker. So, Vinneychopra.com is my website, and also anybody can email me also. Vinney@vinneychopra.com. That’s V-I-N-N-E-Y, and you can Google me. Just say, “Vinney Chopra.” You’ll come to a lot of videos, a lot of my articles, and I’m doing pretty social … Very active on social media.
Kent Ritter:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Thanks, Vinney. The last thing I want to mention to our listeners is, as the podcast has just launched in May, we’re offering a special gift including some thought leadership from six leaders in the industry, including Joe Fairless, Gino Barbaro, Dan Handford, Hunter Thompson, John Casmon, and Kim Lisa Taylor, are all offering free content for those that go out and subscribe to the podcast. If you subscribe to the podcast and send me a screenshot at info@ritteronrealestate.com, I’ll send you free content from those six experts. So, please go out and subscribe today and support the podcast.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
You can include me too.
Kent Ritter:
I love it, Vinney. I love it. Look at this.
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Yeah. I’d love to send a Kindle edition of my book to everybody who just sends us … You tell us who are the people. We will-
Kent Ritter:
Oh, this is incredible. Look at this. All of a sudden we’re going to start a massive action. This is going to be growth right here. Thank you, Vinney, so much. You have been a joy to talk to. Amazing that you meet people over dinner and things like this can happen. So, who knows where we’ll be in six months?
Vinney (Smile) Chopra:
Look forward to meeting you again, Kent, and again congratulations on your successes and your podcast, and whatever … All the great things you are doing to bring to your passive investors. And God bless them, God bless you.
Kent Ritter:
Thank you, Vinney, so much.
Kent Ritter:
Thanks for listening to another great episode of Ritter on Real Estate. I want to let you guys in on a very special offer. To celebrate our launch I’m giving you a free content package if you subscribe to the podcast in the month of May. It includes exclusive content, all about passive investing from seven multifamily [inaudible 00:40:22] leaders, including Joe Fairless, Gino Barbaro, Hunter Thompson, Dan Handford, John Casmon, Kim Lisa Taylor, and Vinney Chopra. It is an all-star cast. All you have to do is subscribe to the podcast and send a screenshot to info@ritteronrealestate.com. So, don’t miss out on this limited-time opportunity. Thanks again for listening. Now, go out and passively invest like a pro.