Diary of an Apartment Investor

Why Asking for Money Is the Wrong Mindset with Steven Richards

• Brian Briscoe • Episode 580

Share episode

Most investors struggle to raise capital because they misunderstand what they’re actually offering.

Capital raising is one of the biggest psychological hurdles for aspiring apartment investors, not because the opportunity isn’t there, but because the mindset around it is broken. When fear, hesitation, or uncertainty leads the conversation, investors feel it immediately — and deals stall long before the numbers ever matter.

If you want to go deeper on these same operator-level conversations, the discussion continues inside the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community, where we break these topics down live, pressure-test assumptions, and work through real questions in real time. Learn more at thetribeoftitans.com.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why viewing capital raising as “asking” creates unnecessary resistance
  • The mindset shift that changes how investors respond to you
  • How confidence influences outcomes more than deal structure
  • The hidden cost of relying too heavily on friends and family capital
  • What changes when you treat capital raising as a responsibility

Steven’s experience highlights a transition many investors must make as they move from smaller deals to larger opportunities — a shift that requires clarity, process, and a fundamentally different way of thinking about investor relationships.

About the Guest:

Steven Richards is the Director of Acquisitions at Streamline Capital Group, where he focuses on sourcing and executing multifamily investment opportunities in Utah. His background spans asset management, property management, and acquisitions, including experience managing more than 1,250 units across 40+ properties in New York City. Steven brings an operator-focused perspective shaped by hands-on execution and transaction experience. 

Learn more about him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-richards-34b74811b/, or https://www.instagram.com/steven.richards.scg/



About the Host:
Brian Briscoe is an apartment operator and founder of Streamline Capital, focused on acquiring and operating multifamily properties in the greater Salt Lake City metro. He hosts the Diary of an Apartment Investor podcast, where he shares real-world operator insights and decision frameworks for aspiring multifamily investors.

If this conversation resonated, there’s more happening inside the Tribe of Titans. It’s where serious investors move beyond surface-level content and into real discussions that drive action. Visit https://www.thetribeoftitans.com/ to learn more.

****Capital Raising Course Starting on January 29****

Learn more and register at www.thetribeoftitans.net

Brian Briscoe:

Welcome to the Diary of an Apartment Investor Podcast, a show where we cut through the noise and talk about what it actually takes to build a real multifamily investing business. I'm Brian Briscoe, apartment investor, operator, and founder of Streamline Capital, and this podcast is built for the aspiring apartment investor who wants more than just theory. We talk about raising capital, closing deals, managing assets, and making the decisions that separate dabbling from building something that lasts. Now, if you're serious about taking the next step, this conversation continues inside of the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community, where investors work through real deals together with live discussions and direct support. So let's get into today's episode. Welcome to the Diary of an Apartment Investor Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Briscoe with Streamline Capital. Very excited for today's show. I know I always say I'm excited, but extra super duper excited for today's show. We've got none other than Stephen L. Richards on the line with us today. So, Steven, how's it going? It's going good, Brian. Glad to finally be on the show. I know, I know. It's taking me two years to get you on, but now we'll have a lot more to talk about. So that said, tell us about yourself and how you eventually landed into this real estate game.

Steven Richards:

Yeah, for sure. I started back in college. I was actually a collegiate athlete at a BYU. I played football there and I played for two years. And during my second season, I got pretty injured. The doctor said I'd never walk again. And so I tried to play football some more, ended up getting more injured. I needed a disc in my back, and it was a big deal. So that kind of steered me toward a different path. I coached for a little bit at BYU. I still coached football, but I was still kind of looking for a new path out. And I got an opportunity to start real estate in New York City. And I had lived in New York City before, and so going back was an easy transition for me. And so my wife and I moved out there right after college. I started doing real estate in New York and focusing on leasing and management on a portfolio of like 1,500 units out there.

Brian Briscoe:

Were you previously interested in real estate, or was that move more to get back to New York?

Steven Richards:

Yeah. So back to New York wasn't necessarily a thing. I actually said after living there for a couple of years, I was like, I'll never live here again. Like, there's no way. So it wasn't necessarily to get back to New York, but it definitely was for real estate. I was so naive back then in terms of what real estate meant. I just thought it was buying and selling apartments and you manage those. You know, that was my basic knowledge. And so going out there and getting a solid experience in a city that was so intense with so many different regulations and rent control. And, you know, it was so good for me to have that experience. And so being out there, I was in charge of all of the major capital improvements of all of our properties. I think we had 45 at the time or closer to 40. So that included like all the renovations for elevators and facade and boilers, and then anything like apartment renovations for trying to increase the rent. So I was in charge of all the construction stuff. I was in charge of leasing all of our 1500 units, and I was in charge of actually managing about 300 units while I was out there. So I got a lot of experience in that role. And COVID happened, moved out of New York City. We had two kids at the time and moved back to Utah, where I'm from originally. And then my wife and I decided that it would be a good time for me to continue my career, but in brokerage on the sale side of things. And so I started selling retail properties, mostly single tenant net lease properties around the country. And I got in when the market was extremely hot. And again, like my experience, my knowledge of real estate was still pretty new. I obviously knew a lot more, but being in brokerage was really good for me and my background there. And then after about three years of doing that, I was doing okay, but the market did start turning. Interest rates started going up. And for single tenant net lease, it was really hard to make deals pencil. They're 10, 15 year leases, you know, and everything's inside the lease, so you can't really make any adjustments like you can in multifamily or other types of asset classes. Yeah. And so I got a call one day from a broker who I used to work with. And he's like, hey, I've been working with this investor here in Utah who's buying all these apartment deals. And one of his teammates just left and he's looking to fill that role. And I thought of you, and I thought, I think you should talk to him. Happened to be Brian, right? Who I had that call with. And the the rest is kind of history. But after about, I think it was like two or three months of talking, we we finally were able to pull the trigger and make that transition happen. I was ultimately in brokerage to do what I'm doing now. So I'm grateful I didn't have to stay in brokerage for 10, 15 years in order to be where I'm at now. So for me, this was a great transition.

Brian Briscoe:

Awesome. Now, going from one side of offense to the other, I mean, brokerage, you play a middleman, you know, now on the ownership side, what's the difference in that for you and why was that attractive to you?

Steven Richards:

Yeah, I will say coming from the brokerage world and using those skills now has been very beneficial. But now on the buyer side and acquisition side and management side of things, what's more attractive to me is I'm not the middleman. I get to help make some of the decisions, I get to help operate the property, I get to help build value and continue the process afterwards. Obviously, there's pros and cons, but this is how I feel one usually generates long-term wealth and success. Not to say, I mean, there's tons of brokers out there who have done so well for themselves, but brokerage is a deal-by-deal basis. The really successful brokers actually are doing what we're doing full time. They're doing it on the side to continue that wealth building. So for me, it's just the end game. And that's why I'm super happy to be on this side, especially during the time of life that I'm in right now.

Brian Briscoe:

Well, you mentioned last, I've noticed that too. Like a lot of the senior brokers at the brokerage, you know, when you start talking to them about what they actually own, most of them are dipping in and they're investing in the things that they sell. They have multifamily assets themselves, some of them will invest in the syndication, some of them will invest with with some of their clients. But you're absolutely right. I mean, it is a way to generate wealth, and a lot of people understand that. And I think the allure for brokers is it's it's something that they understand as well, which definitely helps. You know, I yeah, yeah, I tend to invest in things I understand, and I think everybody does. Yeah. Well, awesome. So let's talk about you know, one of my favorite subjects, you know, streamline capital, and not necessarily streamline, let's talk about your role at Streamline and you know, kind of how that's evolved over time and what you've learned from you know being boots on the ground and you know, nose to the grindstone.

Steven Richards:

Yeah, for sure. So started when I first joined Streamline and left brokerage, my main role was acquisitions of properties, which made sense at the time. We were looking for new properties. I had really good relationships with brokers in Utah. And so for me, that was a natural transition where I was able to continue those relationships with brokers, find deals, underwrite those deals, and get to that point. But then there became a need where we had enough deals in our pipeline that we can look at, but we needed some more capital. And so I transitioned from underwriting and acquisition mode to investor relations, raising capital mode. And for me, I've enjoyed that a little bit better just because I still have all of that knowledge of underwriting, and that's so important. It supports what I do now. But being able to talk with all these investors and making sure that they're comfortable and that we're comfortable with them has actually been really good for me. So, and this job is really fun. Like this role that I do, I get a host events every month. I produce a newsletter, I talk with people on social media and build all these relationships. It's more of my scene, but brokerage has helped me with this role as well. I'm making a lot of phone calls. I talk with a lot of people on the phone, and that's what I did in brokerage. So everything that I'm doing now has been supported by previous experience, and that's what I think has been most beneficial.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. One thing that I I definitely want to hear from you about, and I think our listeners would, you know, you've raised a lot of money in the last year, you know, and it's been a pretty difficult environment to raise capital. So can you give some tips or talk about your experience with raising money and how you've kind of developed that skill?

Steven Richards:

Yeah, for sure. I think I'll go from our phases, right? I think the most important thing that you need to realize and understand is who your investor is going to be, that avatar, that specific person that you need to focus on. There's so many different personalities. There's so many different types of people out there who have different criteria. And so for us, we were able to focus on four criteria of people that typically invest in our deals. So we found those four criteria and we've hyper focused on them, especially with our marketing efforts. From there, we were able to market to those four criteria, namely doctors, physicians, people who've invested in single family who wanted to get into multifamily, high net worth individuals who are salespeople and some CXOs, people who have a lot of money, but not a ton of time or resources, typically invest in our deals. And so those are the people that we focused on. And then we figured out geographical location. The closer they are to Utah, the more likely they're going to invest. With those categories of people, we then went to location and then we hounded the marketing effort there. And then after that, I mean, it was really rough at first. It was kind of feel, feel, feel. And once we nailed down our process, that's when things started really working out. Got some training and figured out a good process from meeting to meeting to meeting to close. And I think that's what's helped the most and gotten us the most traction. So I think those three things are key.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah. You know, and it's something I found works everywhere, you know, is you you come up with a process, which is what we've done, and you know, you refine it and you continue to refine it, you know, and you you make sure that you're you're taking your lessons learned and you're going back, and there's a feedback loop that needs to be there so that your process can continually improve. And that's essentially what we've been doing is you know, making sure that, hey, we're gonna try this, and if it works, awesome, you know, incorporate it into the process. If it doesn't work, iterate. And I say more than anything, we've been really good at iterating. Yeah.

Steven Richards:

So and I think you're right. And I think because it, like you mentioned before, when you phrased the question, it was how have we raised this amount of money in an environment that has been so difficult? Because it's been difficult, it has forced us to dive in deep to our processes and to our foundation and really make sure those are strong and that we can build off of those going forward. And so that super famous phrase, it doesn't happen to you, it happens for you. I think what we've been going through has happened for us so that we can build that foundation and build off of it going forward. And that's been super beneficial as well. Yeah, absolutely.

Brian Briscoe:

Absolutely. All right. So, any capital raising secrets you want to give out today? You know, any big tips to people who are just starting out?

Steven Richards:

Yeah, be really good on the phones. And I know that's a that's a silly thing to say. Yeah, and there's so many different things to that, but you need to understand what your tone of voice does. You need to understand what your questions are actually saying to the investor. You need to understand where they're coming from. A couple books that I really like. One of them is Never Split the Difference, and the other one is Million Dollar Leads by um Alex Hermozzi. So Never Split the Difference was written by Chris Voss and talks a lot about those techniques and things. And then um Million Dollar Leads talks about those funnels and that process on how to make that happen and convert those leads. So for me, the secret would be learn how to talk well on the phone. And then when you're communicating with an investor, you have to let them know how good your deal is. You have to let them know how exclusive the deal is and why it's so important that they're seeing the deal. And then you got to let them know that you're talking to a lot of people. So they don't have a lot of time to move forward with your deal. And you have to be honest. That's how you move people along is making sure that they know that there's a time frame or a timeline that they have to adhere to and letting them know how good your deal is, and then letting them know that it's specific for them and how it can help them out.

Brian Briscoe:

Okay. One more question on capital raising tips. You know, in the last year, I think uh, you know, we were averaging $75,000, $80,000 in average check size, and we're we're sitting at like $150, $175 right now. How have we gone from like $50,000 and $100,000 checks to a lot of six-figure checks?

Steven Richards:

Yeah, that's a great question. I think some of the biggest answers to that has to do with, like you mentioned, us refining our marketing and finding those people who like the deals enough that they want to invest more. What I've actually found interesting is that the people who invest 200k or more are actually easier to work with than people who invest less than that. And so for me, it's easier to talk to someone who wants to invest that amount of six figures or more because they're at a different spot in their life where they can afford to do that. And it's as if someone who is investing 50K, you know, and so I think that has been very helpful, but also addressing their needs and showing them why they should invest and invest more with us. We do a really good job at providing more value to people who invest a little bit more, which is why I think we've been able to close a little bit more. But what I've been able to do is you can invest here, and Grant Cardone talks about this all the time, but talking about upselling, instead of saying how you can save or how little you can spend to get a little bit less product, you actually say you can actually spend more and get even more out of that product. And I think that's been very helpful as with that mindset. It's my whole job is to get as much money from investors as possible. And so at the very beginning, I say, if this deal checks all of your boxes and you like the deal, you want to move forward, how much are you considering investing in your next real estate investment? And they'll let me know. But I share with them, I'm talking with five or six investors this week. On average, our investor is investing between 150 to 200K. How much are you investing? Well, what's the minimum? It's 50K, but like I mentioned, I'm only looking for ex investors. And then they're like, okay, well, I could do 100 or I could do 250 or I could do 200. And so that's that's how it kind of goes. And I think that process has really helped us increase the the value of our of our investor.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah. And I would say previous to that process, you know, what I had been doing is not focusing on the high dollar checks, you know, focusing on the investment itself. And then, you know, people almost always come in at the minimum, right? So if there is a minimum and they're they're unsure how much to invest, most people are just going to hit that minimum. But by reframing that and that start question is brilliant. How much are you considering? You know, because you you let them set the baseline and not the the minimum amount in the investment set the baseline, number one. And number two, you're following it up with, hey, our average investment is, and you know, throwing out a number, a lot of people want to meet it, you know. I mean, yeah, you and I are both competitive, and I think a lot of people are, you know, and so if if somebody comes out and says, you know, I did X, you know, you want to one up, people want to one up each other. It's true, you know. So, but yeah, that kind of sets sets it just a slightly different framework, you know, in the investor's mind where hey, if the average checks 150 and I can do 150, I'm definitely I want to be above average, you know, is I think kind of what that puts in the investor's mind.

Steven Richards:

But uh and it makes them think why are people investing that amount? And so now they're gonna look at this deal a little bit different. They're going to look at the reasons why people are investing more instead of figuring out why they should invest less. Yeah. And that helps too.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah. A lot of it's positioning and you know, a lot of it's uh just kind of setting that expectation. Now, admittedly, something else we've done is we've uh we've also created a tier of investment where if they hit a certain dollar amount, they get better returns, a higher pref. Actually, I'm gonna hit that question to you since you're the one talking with 90% of the investors. How does that extra tier help you to get the bigger checks?

Steven Richards:

I think if people are looking for a specific return, it really helps. If they're just looking for a good investment, I don't know if it helps as much. And what I mean by that is if someone has a specific investment criteria where they need to earn X, then we present them and we focus on here's what you'll get at 100K, here's what you get at 250. And then we really hound 250 because that's what's going to get them closer or surpass what they're looking for. If they're looking for a good return or a good investment, those people need a little bit more convincing on why it's they should go up to 250K if they can. And so for me, how I phrase it is really seeing where they're coming from at the very beginning. And then we focus on it from there. But yeah, most of the time it's the people who are looking for specific returns. And another reaction I actually get too is hey, listen, I know you said that you would do like 150, maybe 200, but if you can get to 250, we can get you these returns instead. And I hear them perk up. They're like, oh, that's actually interesting. I didn't realize that it was that much more. So sometimes they're just unaware because they have a fixed number of their mind. Yeah, makes sense.

Brian Briscoe:

Good. Well, we're getting close to we we try to keep these episodes in a certain time frame. We're getting close to that. So a couple of questions just to finish things up. Question number one, what's next for you?

Steven Richards:

Yeah. So this year I've raised about three million dollars. Hopefully, before the end of the year, it will be four million. I I hope by next year I can get to five to six million dollars raised. And hopefully it's way more than that. Hopefully it's like 10 million. But with what we have now, I I think that that's a real possibility.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah. Yeah, if we could if we can raise five, you know, that's a couple of good properties right there. Next question: if you had to give advice to somebody just starting out in this multifamily journey, what would that advice be?

Steven Richards:

Get your real estate license. I think there's so much benefit in getting a real estate license. It's cheap, you don't have to use it, but all of the information is so good for you to understand. It's really a good crash course. And then I personally would figure out what you want to do in real estate. You don't have to do that right at the beginning, but you do need to figure out what you want to do because there is so much more than buying, selling, and managing.

Brian Briscoe:

It's a very wide field, very wide field.

Steven Richards:

Field. And for example, I didn't even realize that raising capital was a thing until joining Streamline. I didn't realize that there's people out there who get paid as broker dealers to raise capital. I didn't realize that. And so there's so much involved in real estate. You just gotta figure out what your niche is and what you're good at, and then go there. If you're really good at single family homes, focus on single family home stuff. But for me, commercial makes way more sense and fits my personality way better. So that's why I'm at where I'm at. Awesome.

Brian Briscoe:

Awesome. And last question how can listeners learn more about you?

Steven Richards:

Yeah, I have a couple of social media uh pages. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. I also have a social media page on uh Instagram, and that one I think is scg.steven.richards or something like that on Instagram. But yeah, LinkedIn and Instagram are the best places to find me. And obviously our website is streamlinecapitalgroup.com. You can find us there too.

Brian Briscoe:

Awesome. And we'll have all those linked in the show notes for anybody who wants to reach out to Steven. So that's it, Steven. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it. Hey, I hope you got a lot from today's conversation. Uh, if you did, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. We're on all major podcast platforms and YouTube as well. Now, if you're ready to move from listening to actually doing, check out the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community. That's where investors go deeper with live discussions, real time QA, and practical support around capital raising, finding deals, asset management, all of it. All right, you'll find everything you need at thetribe of titans.com. That link's in the show notes, tap it, and we'll see you there.

Head Shot

Brian Briscoe

Host