Why Real Estate. Why Now. Why Legacy.
If your cash is sitting in a savings account doing the financial equivalent of “light stretching,” we’ve got a more athletic plan for you. Private real estate can deliver income today, equity growth tomorrow, and meaningful tax benefits along the way, without you fixing toilets at 1 a.m. (we’ve been there, done that; 0 stars, do not recommend).
Creating Legacy Investment Group
For Ben Kall, a former Division I college football coach, it started as the realization that endless hours reviewing game film and prepping for practice was keeping him from the family life he was starting to create. After having only one dinner at home in six months with his wife Mikaela, Ben knew something had to change. So, they packed up their entire life into a U-Haul, took their total life savings of $6K and moved back home to MN to live out of Ben’s parents’ basement. Stumbling into real estate, Ben found passion and talent and built out businesses in residential and commercial sales as a Real Estate Agent. He sold properties to investors and started a property management company grounded in hands-on operations and quality relationships. A midnight snowblower epiphany two years later made Ben realize it was time to stop trading time for money. He started investing in real estate, first in self-storage, then multifamily and eventually triple net retail.
For Jonah Waxman, a career in investment research and management that had seemed the ultimate goal turned into the realization that he was becoming a weekend dad at best. Tired of chasing dollars on Wall Street and seeking a semblance of work-life balance, Jonah moved his growing family to MN for a high-impact job at a large non-profit. A long-standing dormant interest in real estate turned to action when Jonah ran the numbers on saving for his kids’ college tuition. He realized that if he saved and invested enough money invested into a 529 Plan AND the market cooperated fully without any major recessions, he would have just enough to pay for college but end up with nothing left. On a whim, Jonah ran the calculation again, but instead investing the same amount of money into real estate instead of a 529 Plan and realized that not only could he save enough money for his kids’ college education between cash flow and (tax free) cash-out refinances, but at the end of the day there would still be cash-flowing real estate left over to build from.
Why Real Estate (and Why Now)
Across our focus areas (self-storage, multifamily and essential neighborhood retail), the fundamentals are compelling.
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Multifamily: across the country, homebuying remains far less affordable than renting, keeping would-be home buyers on the sidelines and renting longer. We target quality, non-luxury properties in markets with steady employment opportunities, strong job growth driven by healthcare, tech, education and industry and low development pipelines.
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Self-storage: after a supply surge, new development is cooling and operators with real capabilities are regaining pricing power in growth markets. Storage is an operating business driven by required know-how in technology, dynamic revenue management, marketing and customer experience; these things matter as much as cap rates.
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Essential triple net retail: Shopping centers anchored by grocery, Walmart, Target or home goods stores keep winning because online shopping has not replaced the essential errands one still needs to do in person (as of today, you still can’t get your haircut online).
Underpinning all three: construction costs remain inflated, discouraging new supply, interest rates may have peaked and could be drifting lower, and a wave of maturing loans taken out when interest rates were low are creating opportunities for new ownership and hands-on operators. Motivated sellers and mispriced assets are out there; our job is to find them.
We target stabilized quarterly distributions, cash-out refinances mid-hold period, and an eventual exit once we have completed our value-add business plan. We take a conservative approach to underwriting and leave a margin of safety (we leave rate predictions to fortune cookies).
Let’s Build a Legacy Together
As friends first and aligned on core principles and investing philosophy, Ben and Jonah created Legacy Investment Group to build freedom for our investors, our team and ourselves. That’s why we invest in our own deals; we think they are the best opportunity we can find for our own money. That’s why we created maximum alignment; our investors get paid out before we do. That’s why we are transparent; we know how hard you’ve worked for your money, and you deserve to know what is going on with your investment, even if there are challenges. That’s why most of our investors are friends and family, and the people our close network refers to us, who become friends and family (unlikely at this point, our siblings are spoken for), and that’s why most investors are with us for multiple investments. That’s trust.
If this resonates, book a call, register on our portal, or join our investor list to see upcoming opportunities and educational content. Worst case scenario, you’ll learn a lot about cash flow, tax benefits, forced appreciation and all the other fun ways to win with real estate. Best case, your money will start working as hard as you do and you’ll start building a legacy for you and your family.