If you are a real estate entrepreneur trying to scale, this conversation will resonate with you. I sat down with Fuquan Bilal to unpack what really happens as you grow from a few properties to managing multifamily portfolios and raising capital at scale. We talked about underperforming assets, broken capital stacks, seller financing, diversification, leadership structure, and the systems required to grow without chaos. If you have ever felt the pressure of bigger deals, more debt, or a growing team, this discussion will give you clarity on what it actually takes to scale responsibly.
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Hello everyone, I’m Adrienne Green and today we are here with Fuquan Bilal. Here we focus on how real estate entrepreneurs break free of the grind using leverage, support, and smarter strategies. Let’s jump in and see how Fuquan’s done it himself. To start, can you give us a quick snapshot of what you focus on in real estate today?
Well, we have two strategies that we focus on. One is a rental strategy, which is multifamilies that we acquire in the southeast, primarily Alabama and Georgia, anywhere from 40 to 150 units. And then in New Jersey, where I’ve been investing for the last 27 years, we do luxury spec homes that we build from the ground. We build an addition and put those back on the market to quickly sell. So those are the two verticals that we raise capital for. And that’s our business model. It’s real estate asset management.
Perfect, thank you. That’s a great description of it. Now, my understanding is that you focus on some underperforming real estate assets. What do you think investors maybe misunderstand about this part of the market?
That’s where the deepest discount is at, right? If you want to get higher returns, you have to roll in the mud, as they say. Those are the assets that have the biggest discounts. That’s where I got my start investing in those types of assets and developing relationships throughout my journey. I think that it’s more work.
Bigger return, more work. It just depends on your capacity and your business model. Everybody has a different buy box and different business model.
Right. I think what I see a lot with investors is they want that higher return, but they don’t realize, I love the way you said it, that they have to roll in the mud. You’re not going to get that higher return without—
Gotta roll in the mud.
Yeah, without it costing something else in some sense, of getting a little dirty. I love that. Now, we deal with leverage a lot as real estate investors and real estate entrepreneurs. Leverage can be an amazing, powerful multiplier. Or as we’ve seen in the last few years, it can get some people in trouble. I’d love to hear your thoughts on good leverage and how to use leverage well.
Leverage is good. It just depends on how you use it and what your capital stack looks like.
You have to leave meat on the bone for the next buyer and also for your investors. You have to have risk-adjusted underwriting when you do that. A lot of people misuse it. You look at short-term debt. A lot of multifamily investors fell into that trap where you bought a property on a bridge loan. The goal was to do capex and refinance it out. Rates doubled. So a lot of people struggled. That was because the capital stacks that were in place weren’t structured properly. Those are the operators you see having challenges. It’s a challenging market for everyone in that space, but more pain points are from broken capital stacks and people not using leverage responsibly. Leverage is good if you use it responsibly.
Right, and I think that was probably the most concise description of what’s happened in multifamily over the last couple years in terms of debt. I loved it. You got exactly to what the issue was with the capital stack. What do you like to do in terms of your own capital stack to avoid issues like that, specifically in multifamily?
Well, the cost of capital drives the bus. What we’ve done is seller financing.
The sellers became the bank and did all the financing. We purchased subject to make sure we had that existing low interest rate and long-term debt. When we are doing our capex, we have a low cost of debt for at least five years straight with Fannie Freddie lenders or CMBS lenders that have rates less than five and a half percent. Finding those deals is great because you can assume the loan and take over that way. We also created our own mezz fund.
If you go to a third-party lender, you’re going to pay 15 percent for mezzanine financing or more because it’s short term, two years, 15 percent. They want part of the GP. They want skin in the game. So I decided to create our own mezz fund and raise capital cheaper and give investors preference over common equity. Those are some of the things we’ve done to control the cost of capital because that’s what drives the bus.
I love it. You’re living what a lot of investors dream when you talk about seller financing and subject to.
It’s not perfect. You have to go through pain points to really understand how to structure that. Multifamily is a tough business, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Some things are systemic that you can’t control, like insurance costs doubling.
Tenant wars, using amenities as weapons, concessions, battling with other operators, renewals. You have pain points you have to address. It’s not a perfect world. It’s a perfect storm. You have to learn how to navigate the narrows to get through it.
Right, and what I love is that you’re being active about controlling what you can, even if it means working harder to find better deals or set up mezzanine financing the way you did.
Now I want to dive into how you have these two different investments. You’ve spread your interest and capital across two distinct asset classes. How should investors think about diversification as they scale and maybe move from one city or one asset class? What are your pro tips?
I look at what high-net-worth individuals execute on. There’s a group called Tiger 21. Basically, some people do traditional, some do alternatives. When you look at their blended portfolios, you see more toward alternatives. You have private equity funds for income monthly or quarterly, precious metals as a spread, stocks, bonds, but more alternative assets. Diversification is good. Even if you diversify within another asset class. Some people start with stocks or day trading and then put real estate in their portfolio. You can invest in a fund or short-term notes. Different ways to invest in real estate that give higher yield and diversity.
What prompted you to choose the two asset classes you invest in?
I started in 1999 doing fix and flips. I’ve been in my own backyard for 27 years. Multifamily happened after COVID because we managed rents here in New Jersey. Part of our impact project was going into low-income areas. I come from those areas, revitalizing dilapidated properties. We did a lot of that in New Jersey. After COVID, Jersey being a blue state, there were a lot of tenant issues. We decided to divest that portfolio. There were a lot of New Yorkers coming over, things selling 30 percent over list price. We took that capital to the Southeast and started doing bigger buildings in red states where we could have impact on a larger scale. Same types of areas we were investing in Jersey, affordable housing. That’s really the goal.
We kept the flip strategy here and moved to higher-tier luxury spec homes. COVID was a pivot to split those two verticals for higher yield and diversification, asset class-wise and state-wise.
It’s cool because you mastered low-income multifamily and mastered New Jersey geographically. You diversified by taking the asset class you knew into a new area and doing a new asset class in the geography you had mastered.
We’ve talked about risk and capital stacks. When you’re evaluating an opportunity, either multifamily or ground-up construction, what risks are you focusing on that new investors overlook?
Everything is risky. Getting married is risky. Going to work is risky. Waking up is risky.
COVID taught us about underwriting and stress testing. You have to plan to get punched in the face. Setting up plan C and D instead of just A and B. Sometimes you hit the target, sometimes you won’t. Something is bound to go wrong and affect returns. The main thing is communication to investors immediately. Transparency about what’s going on and what you’re doing about it. Investors ride with sponsors who openly share challenges and how they’re overcoming them.
I love systems and frameworks. In your acquisition decisions, what systems do you use so you’re not relying on gut instinct alone?
We have SOPs from underwriting to submitting a deal to lenders. Processes for insurance. We use automations and some AI integrated over the last year to make workloads easier. We created bots to help with certain tasks. We always manually underwrite. AI does about 60 percent of the work, but you have to manually finalize everything. It helps underwrite more deals and block out ones that don’t fit criteria. Then we sit at the table as a team and vote to make sure everyone agrees before moving forward.
You say that so matter-of-factly. I think you’ve been doing it long enough to build those systems.
As a business owner, I’ve been doing this for 27 years. These are things I implemented when I joined masterminds and learned how a business operates: people, strategy, execution, cash. You have to have rocks if you’re coming from EOS. Ten-year plan, five-year plan, one-year plan, quarterly plan, weekly huddles. People, strategy, execution, and cash goals every month. Those systems and processes are foundational. It took me 17 or 18 years to understand you need a team, reliable people, systems, processes, SOPs. In my first five years, I had no SOPs. I retrained every new hire from scratch.
Those are foundational points no one wants to do. If you don’t have them, you have to land the plane and build them because building the plane while flying it is not fun.
If you’re a solopreneur doing everything yourself with no systems, that’s not a scalable business. It’s that mix of processes, tech, AI, and people that allows you to scale.
As you scale, how do you ensure consistency?
Management accountability plan. Who, what, when, week by week. Five-year, three-year, one-year plans. Quarterly plans broken into 13-week sprints. Weekly meetings to review progress. Action items assigned with who and when. Red, yellow, green tracking. One-page strategic plan. Each department has a map of weekly deliverables to achieve the quarterly rock. The goal is 80 percent completion.
You can have a big vision, but you need a quarterly plan to make progress week after week.
We also use something called a 15-5. Team members answer 15 questions in five minutes every Friday before leaving. One question is their top three items for the week aligned with the map. What did you accomplish? What specifically was done? Do you need resources? You can review them weekly, even while on a treadmill, and catch issues early. It’s a strong accountability tool.
Nothing is perfect, but we try.
With the 15-5, they fill out a survey. Minimum three deliverables a week. Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least. They feel good accomplishing goals. It creates momentum.
There’s so much power in routine surveys. We do something similar in my virtual staffing business to keep a pulse on progress and challenges.
Virtual staffing has been a game changer. They’re the backbone of the business. You can optimize your schedule using a virtual team.
You’ve developed leadership capability over time. What leadership tips would you give operators managing people, properties, and capital?
I have a coach to keep me accountable. You don’t have to manage everyone directly. Use tools like the 15-5. Communicate with team leads. Have level 10 meetings. Train someone as your right-hand operations person. Use the virtual team.
You’ve mentioned the treadmill a few times.
I walk 15,000 steps a day. It’s my coffee. I switch between running and walking. I read, handle tasks, and optimize time while burning calories.
That discipline plays into leadership and mindset.
Scaling from a few doors to managing portfolios requires mindset shifts. What changes internally?
Self-care. Daily rituals. Your business can only grow to the extent that you do. Meditation, gym, reading daily. Weekly planning. Reviewing at the end of the week. Am I the best version of myself? How do I course correct? Success is an optimized daily experience sustained over time. Strive for that daily.
You’re as disciplined personally as you are in business.
You have to grow yourself before you grow your business. Good habits first, then business discipline.
If people want to connect with you, what’s the best way?
Our website is nngcapitalfund.com. I like speaking with people about their investment journey. I’m also on LinkedIn as Fuquan Bilal. You can schedule a call through the website if you have additional questions.
Thank you so much for coming. If you got value from this conversation, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you’re listening. Join me again next week for another episode.