Let's Get This (Snow)ball Rolling

Just over three years ago we closed our first real estate syndication – Legacy Killarney Center, a retail center in Wichita, KS. A syndication is when a group of people pool their money together to buy a bigger investment than they would be able to do on their own - if you are late to the party, read more here. This is kind of like splitting the cost of renting a yacht for the weekend, no one’s buying the whole boat, but everyone’s drinking champagne on the same deck. We may just be dreaming of this as we climb out of subzero temps here in MN.

We raised nearly $1 million of capital from friends and family for this property, and it is our privilege and honor to announce that we have now completed the full investment cycle two years ahead of schedule!

The WHAT?

Now, WHAT the heck is a full investment cycle? Here’s our real-world example, with real numbers and real investors:

We closed on Legacy Killarney Center on September 2, 2022.
We raised $975,000 of investor capital.
From September 2, 2022 to December 29, 2025, we distributed a total of $277,500 back to our investors via cash flow from operations.
On December 29, 2025 we completed a cash out refinance and we just sent an additional $795,000 of proceeds back to our investors.
A cash out refi lets us pull equity out of a property after forcing appreciation (adding value through operational improvements). We then get to return that initial capital to investors, continue to own the property, and benefit from future cash flow and eventual exit proceeds. If any of you have heard of the "BRRRR" method (and no, that’s not a typo because we're cold), we are doing that but with commercial real estate.
BRRRR or "Buy, Renovate, Rent, Refinance, Repeat" is a popular tactic for residential investors because the goal is to buy a single family home, renovate it to force appreciation, rent it to a tenant and then refinance at a higher valuation than the purchase price, pull all of your money out (down payment + renovation expenses), and then you own a home “for free” that cash flows and then repeat the process with the same initial capital invested. We just did this, but with a multi-million-dollar commercial property!
We have now distributed over $1,072,500 back to our investors in just over 3 years giving everyone a ~1.1x return on their original investment.
The best part? The investors still own this asset, and they will still get quarterly cash distributions, ongoing tax benefits, and proceeds from the eventual sale.
Now an investor can take that $100K original investment and invest in a new cash generating property with no additional funds out of pocket! They can just recycle the same capital into a new deal. This is how you create "the stack".

So, if you had invested $100K in The Legacy Killarney Center, you would have now received ~$110K in distributions. You will also likely continue to receive $6K-$8K+ in cash distributions (6%-8%+) each year from operations. So, you would have received not only 100% of your initial investment but an additional $10K for good measure and will likely continue to get ~$6K-$8K+ in distributions with no more capital “at risk" because you’ve gotten your entire initial investment back. For context, a 6% cash-on-cash return is ~3x the long-run average yield on the S&P 500. Importantly, this cash-on-cash return doesn’t consider other drivers of real estate returns such as debt paydown and appreciation that take our expected annualized net returns to 14-17%, OR the pass through tax benefits that are on top of all that. Then if you reinvest your initial investment into the next opportunity that is also generating a 6%-8%+ cash-on-cash return, now you are using the same initial investment and generating a 12%+ cash-on-cash return on your investment. This is the "stack". And this is where real estate gets FUN…

So, as many Americans are digging themselves out of a large snow storm, when you’re getting ready to build your next snowman, remember the compounding effect of the stack, and set up a call with the LIG team to get the (snow)ball rolling on your investment journey today.

The HOW:

Our model at Legacy Investment Group is to buy “Value Add” Properties. We use our operating experience to increase the Net Operating Income (NOI) at the property with value-add projects. Some of the key things we enhanced at the Legacy Killarney Center were:

Value Add Wins

We spent $300K completing multiple upgrades to the property
New monument sign
Refreshed building exterior
Refreshed interior suites
Updated exterior lights to LED for safety and energy efficiency
HVAC overhaul for energy efficiency
Roof repairs
The best part? ~$275K of the total capex spent was from seller credits we negotiated at closing! Meaning, we didn’t even have to go out of pocket to improve the property!
We increased occupancy from 80% at acquisition to 100%
This took just 18 months, well ahead of our initial conservative plan
We upgraded several existing tenants and increased their base rent to market levels
Result? We added ~$125K in net operating income (NOI) (+57% from acquisition) despite an unfavorable macro environment (rising interest rates and higher cap rates)

We are actively looking to purchase more value-add retail centers, just like Killarney. We plan on closing $15M+ worth of value-add retail centers in 2026. Sign up for our investor portal or schedule a call below if you want to learn more.