Buying Back The Block, with Chris Senegal
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Welcome to the All In Podcast. I'm your host, Rod Watson. I'm a proud father, husband, son, former athlete, and business owner of the LAVIPH&T. The All In Podcast is a dynamic audio experience where we interview the brightest minds in sports, entertainment, and business. Join me as I host real conversations with industry elite top performers that foster growth and development, which leads to success in life and business for our listeners.

Being all in is my mantra and it's what I live by. I hope that you find value in this podcast and I look forward to connecting with you on the other side. Let's go. All right, guys, this is Rod Watson, your host for the All In podcast. I'd like to thank you all for attending today. We got a special guest, Mr. Buy Back the Block, Chris Senegal. Chris, thank you for coming on today.

Appreciate the invite, man. Appreciate the invite. And for those of you who do not know Chris and you're not following Chris, Chris is an investor, developer, author, mentor, and influencer. And it's been a joy to be able to watch your growth here over the last few months since I've been in connection with you.

And so today, you know, I'm excited about this conversation because I've got a lot of questions for you. I think that our listeners and our viewers are going to definitely benefit from a lot of gems. I know that you're going to be dropping. So let's dive into it. But I like to first start off with giving our listeners and viewers opportunity to get to know who you are, where you're from. And then we'll kind of dive into your story and what you're doing right now in the city of Houston, which I think is phenomenal. So you mind sharing, Chris, where you're from?

Yeah, so I grew up in Port Arthur, Texas. I was originally born in Lake Charles. I went to college in Baton Rouge at Southern University. Got out of school, had the engineering degree, did the corporate thing for about a year and realized I didn't like it. So just started looking for my exit strategy really early. Got into real estate.

At the time, I was in Memphis, Tennessee. I wanted to move back closer to home. I actually had a kid when I was 16. So I wanted to move back closer to my son and my mom. They were in Port Arthur. Okay. Nearest big city with opportunity was Houston. So that's how I landed here, and I've been here since then.

So you came to the dirty, dirty, the big H, you made it home, huh? Made it home, man. Yeah. So you also went, you know, you showed me you went to Southern University. So what was that experience like attending Southern and how did it shape you into being the person you are today, meaning attending a historically black college? Yeah. So, man, you know, growing up, I had both sides of the coin. When I lived in Lake Charles, it was predominantly white schools. And then when I moved to Fort Arthur, it was all black. Yeah. Right.

Right. But then, you know, even in all black school, you got I was in gifted and talented program. So we're kind of isolated from a lot of the other kids, you know. Yeah. But then when you get to college and it's like everybody's on the same wavelength, you're surrounded by people from all over the country, you know, young black people that are, you know, pursuing things and have the same type of mindset. You know, it was empowering, man. It was a great experience. And I wouldn't I wouldn't change it for anything. Actually got to play it while I was there. So I'm a member of Omega Psi Phi. So, OK.

Got a strong brotherhood for J.D. Yeah, strong brotherhood. Yeah, man. And can you share a little bit about how that actually, has that played a role in any of your success in what you're currently doing right now? Yeah, man. During the pledge process, we had to learn a poem called Invictus. And it just talks about, you know, not giving up and, you know, being a master of your fate and captain of your soul, you know. And Invictus is actually Latin for invincible. Mm-hmm.

That's actually the name of my development company. So from that point on, man, it's like all the principles that they teach you about,

making it through things and, and, you know, you know, seeing, seeing it through. Yeah. That's definitely had a big impact on everything I do now. Having that strong network makes a difference in, in being connected to a fraternity like that, where it's a brotherhood. And, you know, unfortunately I didn't, I didn't attend a college, whatever that was, that was an option. You know, I went to a small white Christian school, play college basketball. And in some ways I, you know, I wish I would have chosen because I got an offer to play a prayer view and I just wanted to leave Texas and get away from home. And, you know,

So many people I knew were going to Prairie View. My uncle had graduated from there and had some other relatives that went to school there. And it was just like, I want to get outside of Texas. But looking back, I wish I would have actually taken that opportunity to attend a historically black college, especially when you look at what all is going on now today from the standpoint of how African

are considering that as a viable option. We've seen one of the top prospects choose to attend a historically Black college. So hopefully we may see that shift going forward. But definitely, you know, when you talk about that network and that fraternity, I've watched it kind of, you know, whether it's CAPAs, you know, and various other fraternities, I've watched the Brotherhood where these guys really stick together. You know, you see these opportunities where they support each other, whether it's connecting them for opportunities for career advancement, et cetera. You know, they say you're

You are the company that you keep it more and more. So having that strong brotherhood, I think, really is important in that. And basically the mission statement that you guys live by, which is not giving up and being persistent about pursuing the things you want. You know, there's value in that. Right. So that college education, that money you're spending isn't just about getting the knowledge and the books, but it's about building those relationships, too, as well. And that's something I learned while I was in school.

I agree, man. I don't use my engineering degree pretty much at all anymore, but man, the networking and like you said, everything, the relationships that I have now from that experience are, have proven tenfold, you know? Yeah.

Tell me a little bit about what prompted you. Obviously, it doesn't sound like there was much real estate in your background growing up, was it? No. Okay. Do you mind sharing what prompted you to even consider getting into real estate to actually at a time period where it's not common to see developers or to see people that look like you and I as investors? What motivated you to get into the real estate industry? Man, I just felt like I was sold a dream really on the whole corporate

track you know it's like yeah go get a degree get a scholarship get a good job and you get out there and i'm like i really don't like this you know it's long hours controlling you know i don't i don't i don't really get the energy that i'm really gonna be able to make it all the way up to the ceo position my boss isn't happy my boss's boss isn't happy but they you know they're making more money and i'm like man this this this is not what i'm gonna do for the next 40 years yes no way

So I just started reading books and just started focusing on, you know, another plan and investing just kept coming up. Investing is the only way that you can make a decision once and get paid over and over for it. Absolutely. That residual. Yeah. Residual, you know, so whether you're investing in the business or investing in anything, stocks, you know, anything. So I tried trading options for a little while, had some success.

2008, the volatility just got so crazy. I got out of that and then real estate just kept popping up, kept popping up. I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That really was the trigger. It was like, okay, I'm really going to pursue this real estate track and then move to Houston. The networking, the relationship you were just talking about, it just happened that one of my line brothers...

from Southern was in Houston already and he worked for HomeVestors. I remember them. One of my partners owned one of those franchises. We bought a home. They buy a lot of property. At least back in 08, 07, they were buying a ton of properties. Yeah. That's still very prevalent now. There's a lot. Yeah. They're the biggest wholesale network in the country right now. Yeah. But yeah, man. So he worked for them and he introduced me to one of the contractors that they were using to do a lot of their rehabs. And that guy became my mentor.

2008, I started flipping houses and yeah, just never looked back. And it's just, you know, it's been a constant growth trajectory, always pushing myself to the limit. Yeah. As far as real estate, a lot of people do what's commonly known as wholesaling or flipping houses. A lot of people do rental properties. A few people do new construction. But then when it comes to development, you don't really see a lot of us

But the development really is what sparks everything. A neighborhood is nothing without the original person that put that concept together to actually develop an idea and create a community. So that's what the developer's role is. So that's where, you know, that's why I just got to and that's where I'm going to stay.

Yeah, well that's awesome man and thanks for sharing that. You have an initiative that's going right now called Buy Back the Block and that's what you're known for. I call you Mr. Buy Back the Block. A lot of people talk it, right? We use social media, you see a lot of different gurus trying to sell you courses, how to flip this, how to do this. But one thing I haven't seen, and this is just from my experience of being an agent over the last 14 years,

Black developers that are actually talking and walking the game now I'm not saying there aren't any out there but on from a social media standpoint from a proven results based standpoint showing your work if you will because a lot of people say I did this I did that but actually living it what prompted and started to buy back the block campaign for you what was your most like so is what I yeah so for me for me it started like back in about 2013 after about five years of doing flips and having rentals and and still kind of feeling frustrated and

You know, especially for a couple of reasons. Number one, it's not like they tell you on HGTV. It's not that easy. Exactly. A lot more headaches, a lot more pitfalls. Yeah. And then, you know, I had a lot of people always ask me, you know, how can they get in? What can they do? How can they participate? And for me, flipping is kind of a one man sport. You know, you have a small team, but you can't really impact the big group with flipping. Yeah.

So I started looking at different avenues and gentrification just kept coming up. And I started realizing that even sometimes when you're in the flip world or the wholesaling world, if you're going into our neighborhoods and you're participating in that and getting people to sell you their house, and then your end buyer ends up being somebody not from the community, you're actually accelerating gentrification. And so for me, it was like, well, man, this is an opportunity for me to figure out a way to impact the community, take this knowledge that I have,

And, you know, change that trajectory of what we can do in our communities without having to just always complain about gentrification, figure out how to participate in it. I mean, it's not going to stop. Everything has a life cycle, including a neighborhood. So either we participate in it and kind of control the narrative or we continue to let other people do it and try to protest and try to stop it. Yeah.

That's not going to happen. Well, you speak on gentrification and your motivation, which gentrification was your motivation is what I hear you saying. How do you how do you change that? Right. You know, as you say, you hear that word. It's using the negative sense, basically, as black people, as African-Americans, when we hear gentrification, we hear white folks coming in our neighborhood to take over.

people that don't look like us coming in in our neighborhood to take over and push us out. Do you mind sharing the definition, breaking down what gentrification, what it really means? And I watched this on your video, so that's why I'm asking this question. If you could share that with our listeners and our viewers. Sure. So if you look it up in Webster's Dictionary, the word gentrification means to take something from a lower class standard up to an upper middle class state. That's all it states.

but the negative undertone comes in is because usually the people that are upgrading the neighborhood aren't the people from the community. They aren't focused on the well-being or the betterment of the people in the community. So then you have a lot of displacement. You have a lot of homes that come in that are completely out of the price range of anybody that even live in the neighborhood or from the neighborhood even if they're doing well now. So, you know, the mileage just has to shift. And

And so when the whole concept of buying the block or buying back the block is that the history of these neighborhoods is these were historically black neighborhoods. A lot of these were created at the turn of the century after slaves were freed and we had to set up our own communities. When everything was segregated, we had to have our own everything. We had our own houses that we built, that we saved up and we built for, you know, we had our own business districts in every city because you couldn't go to a

white doctor, you couldn't go to a white hospital, a white hotel. We had all of that. That's right. We don't talk about that enough. A lot of these neighborhoods that's the hood now were once thriving, but one of the bad side effects of desegregation was we fought so hard to have the right to patronize and live and be in other people's communities that we made sure we took advantage of that when it came. And the bad part about it was our neighborhoods ended up becoming neglected.

Well, it's interesting. You talk about the gentrification. You share what definition of gentrification means. Thank you for sharing that. But then you talk about our history as black people within our communities. I grew up in Fifth Ward, which we'll talk about a little bit as we go on through this interview. I grew up in Fifth Ward and you're doing great things in the community. And we'll discuss that a little more in depth.

But, you know, you touched on, you know, our history and what those communities were like prior to the drug trade, which I grew up under that. I experienced that. You know, my father went to prison when I was nine years old, nine or 10 years old for drug trafficking. He spent well close to a decade in prison. I didn't see him until I was 22 years old. And a lot of my friends,

were enduring, experiencing the same things, where their parents were either on drugs, going to prison. So today's culture, when you talk about hood, they think the hood has always been like this, right? And it hasn't. I remember as a kid, walk before we had McPhee's, ice cream, burgers, fries,

You know, we had our own technicians that could come to your house and work on your appliances. Everything we had was right there with our own grocery stores, our own small black businesses. And when you go through these communities now, you see very little of that, right? And my grandmother was an educator. She worked at Barbara Jordan High School.

And she was actually an administrator and she spent over 20 years as an administrator working at Barbara Jordan and was very well, very well respect owned her own home, which is one of the things that motivated me about real estate, because I saw like my grandmother owns her own property. Right. And she's educated. And that was coming in our neighborhood.

The neighbors spoke to each other. Now it's the complete opposite of that. And I just wanted to touch on that because I think that you're right. I mean, we don't really truly understand and know our history and what these communities meant. I mean, Fifth Ward was a prominent community with some of your top black celebs and pop

where political influences lived and resided. So we have a rich history. Felicia Rashard, Ray Charles, we just had a strong prominent community that was rich with resources. So when you talk about gentrification, you talk about your initiative to buy back the block, the question I have for you is how can people within black communities take advantage of the opportunities

You know, when it comes to developing our communities through real estate investing and you're setting the blueprint right now. But do you mind sharing to our listeners and viewers that are thinking about, man, I want to get into real estate. I want to invest. You know, I want to do what Chris is doing. Like, what are those opportunities that you're seeing right now on the ground that they can look at and really start to begin the process of developing that blueprint, that foundation to not only invest,

changing the narrative for what's going on in our communities with gentrification, but building the foundation for wealth for themselves and their families.

So what usually happens in the process of gentrification is some outside developer decides they've identified a huge opportunity in an area where the land is really cheap. Right. And they can come in and build something great and have a large profit margin. That's always going to be the spark of the gentrification. What happens after that is after that main catalyst, that main economic driver starts building,

Other developers, other builders, other investors start coming into that same community doing the same thing to ride that wave. And usually what we do is we stand on the sidelines and we're mad. But what we need to do is participate in that process. As soon as you see that, you hear that first announcement, that first thing about what's going to happen in the neighborhood, we need to be controlling all of the property around it.

That's right. Because the value is going to appreciate once that project comes online. Yeah. And if you own everything around it, you can control what happens with everything else. Correct. Imagine like one of my initiatives right now is with the crowdfund. It was specifically to buy a portfolio of rental properties that had long-term tenants. Right.

Because I know from an investment perspective, we can make a great return on the investment just off of the value appreciation of real estate because it's so close to the big mixed use development that's coming to fifth floor. So since you have such a great return off of the value appreciation, you don't have to focus so much on cash flow.

And what that means is for most people that don't understand, you make money two ways in real estate. The first is off of the net profit on the rent, which is cash flow, which is, you know, how much more you can charge for the rent above what the mortgage payments are, or your taxes and insurance. And then other way is the value appreciation.

So in certain plays, you don't have to be so greedy. If you have a great value appreciation play where the property is going to go up significantly, you can just make a decent return off of the cash flow and be okay. And that's the only way you can protect existing residents. Because if it makes sense where you don't have to raise the rents on them, then they can stay there. Their way of life doesn't change as the community around them improves. And you still get a great return on investment. It's not charity.

Well, what you shared is very, for those of you listening, I think it's important to take these gems that Chris is dropping. You know, as an investor, what Chris is saying, he's not going into neighborhoods or communities that have been impoverished or have experienced, you know, basically decimation where he is now looking to redevelop. He's not going in and, you know,

acquiring properties and that tenants are in and pushing them out and raising the rents. He's actually finding out a way to make it a win-win for all parties that are involved. And when you talk about changing the narrative, that is to be celebrated.

And I think that anyone that's listening to this, this is a blueprint that we all can follow and go and take and execute within our communities. Because as he's saying, you know, the money is made not just when you do the deal, but it's the appreciation, right? As you do your assessments, you run your numbers and you determine, okay, this would be a great investment, but you're also going to be gaining market appreciation over the time that you're earning the

property and you're also earning passive income every time those tenants pay rent. And the other upside to that is if those properties, you have the opportunity to make improvements and you're notifying those tenants over time that we're gonna make any improvements and we're gonna see a slight rent increase,

where appropriate, then you have the opportunity to increase cash flow for your investors as well that way. And that's basically what Chris is doing in a nutshell. And, you know, I think that's great because you're not going in and saying, look, we're going to buy up all these properties and then we're going to get these people out and we're going to raise the rents and bring in people that can pay higher rents, which ultimately goes back to what I was saying, why so many black people are have the negative view on on gentrification that, oh, they're going to

push us out, whereas you're helping keep these people in place and then raise the value and build the community up around those individuals as well. And because one day those people that are renters in those properties can come back and say, man, Chris, you know, we see the benefit. You helped improve the values around the community and now we're in a position to buy, right? And they end up potentially becoming one of your customers on your future projects that you're

So that's fostering and developing wealth, not just from a money perspective, but from a cultural perspective. And I think that's that's that I just wanted to touch on that and bring that up now, which leads me to my next question. You know, you talk about we're still talking about gentrification and oftentimes the developments that are going around us and within our communities and we're on the sideline watching. Why do you think and I don't you know, you may not have this, but I want to give maybe your opinion where it's like.

We're not getting in the game. Everything else. We're in the game on basketball. We're in the game on football. We're in the game on... We're all in the game for being rappers. But when you really break it down, only a small percentage of us are going to have success in those specific buckets, right? Very, very small percentage when you look at the masses. Whereas...

a career as a real estate developer, investor, or realtor like myself, you can make way more money if you're disciplined, structured, and have a game plan than most of your ballplayers, rappers, you know what I mean, or even entertainers are making. And I know that all looks good and feels good from a standpoint of self-like, right? You know, I'm acknowledged, I'm powerful, but at the end of the day, are you making money? Are you building wealth? Are you putting yourself in position, in your family position to win long-term? So what's your viewpoint on why you think

as black people we're not seeing as many getting in the game you know you have all these rappers that are making money you know you have all these ballplayers making money like what do you think it is while we're sitting on the sideline as opposed to getting in the game of real estate investing exposure exposure from the day you start kindergarten you're taught sports and you're taught how to how to become a career professional you know that's the whole focus what do you want to be when you grow up nobody talks about being a developer or real estate or real estate investor you know

And so the majority of the community has a limited scope of what the possibilities are. So they hone in on certain things. And, man, thank God for social media because before that, you depend on mainstream media to give you your opportunities and your examples. Well, now... They don't give us many. Exactly. They weren't. They kept us in certain lanes and siloed in certain sectors. But now with the power of social media, man, I mean, so many other investors and developers that I never would have had the opportunity to even come across, you know? Yeah. So...

I think that tide is kind of changing. I think people are waking up and starting to realize that more. We still got a long way to go. But, you know, and I always say this, we don't have to turn everybody's opinion. You know, we don't have to get everybody on board. We just need enough of us to sustain our own. That's right. Yeah. I tell people all the time, it's like, you know, sometimes we feel like we're frustrated because the whole culture didn't get it.

And like I said, with the power of social media now, we have a much broader reach. We can reach more people. They can see the value. We can do things like this, you know, remotely, have this conversation and expose us to a whole new audience. Yeah. Well, when you talk about example, I think you've been a great example. I think you've done a tremendous job of executing flawlessly as far as getting your message, who you are, your brand, your mission out to the masses, regardless of color. But at the end of the day, I think it's...

definitely directed towards our people. And I agree with you. You can't sit on the sidelines and expect everybody to be involved. And I also agree that it's about what we're exposed to, right? The more people that see a Chris or Rod or whoever else that are doing great things in the real estate space, then it becomes a reality. It becomes a reality, meaning that, oh, I see Chris. Chris looks like me or Chris is from my community or I went to college or I was in a fraternity with Chris and he's doing that. Man, I know I can do that.

Let me connect with him. He's accessible. Whereas investors, especially high network investors 15, 20 years ago, weren't accessible. You had to know somebody to get access. And now we have someone like Chris Senegal within our communities that are doing great things that...

By the way, if you reach out to Chris, he will respond to you. He's not just, you know, on the internet, you know, all flash. He's actually a genuine human being that really cares and is passionate about what he does. You know, having that accessibility, I think is important and using your platform effectively. Cause I think, you know, a lot of people, you know, you have these platforms and it's more about,

kind of just broadcasting and say, here's what I'm doing. Whereas you're practicing group economics, which is my next question that many people, when you talk about real estate, you talk about development, especially within the black community. The issue oftentimes is money, majorly funding. That's usually when you talk about large scale to mid-scale size development, which is what you're doing, you need funding, you need money. And oftentimes, you know, we can't go to banks and banks are going to give us the necessary funding to fund the project.

that's needed. They might give us partial or some of it, but it's very rarely you see banks really participating in helping us rebuild our communities the way that you are. So you've done something that I think is historic. I think that is highly honorable and it has been also celebrated locally at the Houston Chronicle. You had a print and a write up about what you're doing, but

you did a crowdfunding or capital raise and you raised over a million dollars for, and that's not just one time, but on just recently that I noticed, can you talk about the steps you took to raise that money and the process?

So the backstory on that is exactly what you addressed. When you're trying to go into one of our neighborhoods that is depressed or suppressed or neglected, whatever, the banks don't see the value in it. If you wait for a banking institution to tell you that this project is bankable and you are bankable, you'll never get there, especially if you're trying to be the first. What I realized is like, I got to figure out a more creative way to do these deals.

And so there's a few models that are taught and like residential investing, like single family homes. One of them is seller financing and owner financing, which means the owner actually doesn't have any debt on the property. They've paid it off. They've inherited something. And then you can agree on a purchase price and give them a down payment, just like you would do a bank and start making payments to them. And so for me, I took that model and then I started searching for, uh,

property owners. So like second generation real estate investors that where they, the heir got a whole bunch of property from the parents and the heir doesn't want to, or the kids of the heir don't want it. And so every big block of property I've bought, that's how I bought it. Seller financing, different terms, sometimes it's 10%, sometimes it's 50% down, depends on the situation. And then I just make payments to them instead of using the bank. And that's, that's how I'm able to control those things. And then

You know, the next step is how do you fund it? Right. How do you fund the rest of it? So for the new construction project, which is the other project I'm talking about that just for a second. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So the focus of new construction was this was a block that didn't have any houses on it. So there's no displacement. It was an old grocery store and some abandoned property that's used for drug property before I bought it.

So I cleaned it all up and I decided to build a new construction on it because we have to bring the higher incomes back to the neighborhood. If we don't have the higher incomes, then it's never going to be attractive for businesses to come back to the community. And with that new construction development, it's a little more risky because it's a long lead time to get to success, right? Because you have to do all the planning, you got to do all of the permitting work.

You got to do all the engineering. That's a process. Yeah. It's a two or three year process. Yep. And so for the new investor, it's kind of hard to swallow. I got to put money in and I won't make it out for two or three years. Yeah. But on the other side, with the portfolio rooms I was talking about earlier, the 18 houses have long-term stable tenants. So these guys have, some of these tenants have literally been there 30 years. We got two sisters that live next door to each other for the last 19 years.

So that's really stable. And when the owner said their owner financed it to me, I was like, okay, this is a project where I could bring on one private investor. I had a guy that I needed $600,000 to close it. He would have lent me the whole $600,000. I could have put some of my own money in if I wanted to. But I bought this whole portfolio for $1.2 million, 18 houses and two commercial buildings, 50% down at closing. So what I decided to do, I was like, well, this is an opportunity for me to show that group economics can work.

Because I can put this out and I can let everyone invest with me and I can make the investments small. So the way this model works for funding, it's like GoFundMe for investing. Okay. And this was something that was implemented when Barack Obama was in office. It's called the JOBS Act.

And what it allows is allows any everyday person to invest up to $10,000 into a fund and actually have ownership in the fund or you can lend money to the fund. So what I did was ownership because I wanted to break everything up into little shares. I broke it up into $50 shares. And then, you know, I said the minimum buy-in was five shares. So your minimum investment to say you actually own a piece of this rental portfolio is $250. Okay.

Wow. Yeah. In exchange for that, you know, you get ownership. So like I said, we're really close to all this gentrification and all this redevelopment that's happening in the community. So we get to control this parcel, protect these tenants. And as the value appreciates, everybody's share value appreciates, just like owning a share of a company. That's pretty impressive. So, yeah. So, I mean, the model came together and I'm also letting everybody participate in the profits from the rents.

So after all the bills are paid, I'm taking 40% of the net profit, which is what's left of everything's paid. And then I'm dividing it up and giving that out to all the shareholders, just like a dividend, just like a stock. And so it equates to about 2% or 3% return, which is just icing on the cake on top of the share value appreciation of actually owning a real estate. And just for comparison, if you buy $250 worth of Nike stock, you get a 1% dividend. So you're getting two to three times that.

and you're protecting the community and the value is going up on your shares. This model is impressive. What I hear you saying is basically, you locate the areas of individuals that are receiving investments passed down from their parents or family members. These properties usually have either a large amount of equity or they're paid for, and you're going to these individuals and you're negotiating a seller financing where you're bringing 10% to 50% down to secure the project. Then you

The other side is you're going out and you're raising capital and creating opportunity for investors like myself or any other, any other individuals that is from the community or interested in and seeing the community redevelop minimum buy-in is 250 bucks. And you're giving those people opportunity to participate in the redevelopment process and also, um,

profit and have ownership in the actual equity side, which is huge, and then participate in the long-term passive income opportunity or income ROI return once the project and development is done. So that's what I hear you saying, basically. I understand that correctly.

Yep. Okay. Exactly. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that for individuals who may not participate in our world that come across this, that break it down and understand. Yeah, of course. Of course. And then even the next step in that is after we've owned it for four or five years and the value has gone up significantly,

We have so much equity that we can go to a bank at that point in time and get a line of credit or loan against that equity. And then we can go buy bigger things with more traditional ways of financing it. But this is a way for you to get in early before too much of the redevelopment has happened and control big parcels in the community.

Out of all the neighborhoods, I mean, Houston's a big city. I grew up in Houston my entire life, and it's a very unique city. It's filled with Black culture. You have a couple of historically Black colleges there, TSU, Prairie View. Who am I missing? There's somebody else. But those two stand out primarily. And there's two historic Black communities in Houston, Third Ward,

and then Fifth Ward. And those two communities are rich with history. But of course, you know, there's several other communities. You could have went out to Katy. You could have went out to North Houston. Why did you choose Fifth Ward as the, I guess, ground zero to launch, you know, and execute your model and your plan?

Because it checked all the boxes. I mean, it's one thing to go into a community that is distressed, but there's no economic driver there quite yet. So it's going to be harder to get the buying of everybody. It's more of a philanthropic effort in a sense, because you don't know if it's really going to be profitable or not.

But the location of Fifth Ward, with it being right next to downtown and it being like right in the path of all the redevelopment. So if you're not from Houston or even if you're from Houston, just let you know, like redevelopment went counterclockwise around downtown. It started in the Heights and then went to the Fourth Ward, which is actually another historically black neighborhood. And, you know, now it's heavy in Third Ward. So a lot of that community, the prime real estate, the houses are already half a million dollars between four and two hundred thousand.

So Fifth Ward was like uncharted territory and I just knew that eventually the redevelopment was going to come there. And with it being a historically black neighborhood and the only one inside, you know, the vicinity of coastal downtown that hadn't been gentrified already, I was like, well, this is a perfect opportunity to put a playbook together and create the blueprint for what can be done in other communities. So it was very, very strategic.

Not only that, but like I always tell people, if you want to know where the activity is going to be in the next five or 10 years, study the urban planning department of your city. That's right. Study the city council meeting minutes because all the people have to go there first to get permission for things, the planning and zoning commission. So once you have exposure to all that, it's no longer as much of a gamble. It's more of a calculated risk because you know it's coming. It's just depending on how far in the future it's coming.

One thing I want to touch on, Chris just shared with two. One is urban planning and development. For those of you that don't know what that means, the city has basically a plat map that shows you development that's already taking place and future developments, roads, freeways, communities, master planning communities, et cetera, commercial developments that are going to be underway within a certain timeframe, whether that's three years out, five years out, 15 years out. I'm not sure how far, I can't remember how far it got.

out they go, but you can, it's pretty extensive. And it's like having that crystal ball, if you will, right? Now, some of these developments don't happen or things don't happen in that timeframe, but they're scheduled to. And so that's more or less what Chris is saying, urban planning development is like that roadmap. That's that city blueprint to show you what's to come. And the second thing is I want to pinpoint is like what Chris is saying is having that foresight of seeing where the development is,

basically catching a wave before it gets to you right as a surfer just imagine if you've ever been to a beach and that surf is laying there on that surfboard and that swell is swelling up and you see it coming right so now you got to start to paddle get your board turned around and position yourself to catch that wave and more or less

I'm trying to give it, breaking it down, like give an analogy and just so they can visually see it. Chris is basically saying, hey, I see what's happening. I see the swell. I see it coming. And obviously Fifth Ward, where it's positioned, I grew up there. ITM runs through Fifth Ward. I grew up on Lockwood, my grandfather's house, where I grew up with my mom and my dad was on Lockwood. So you also have Frenchie's Chicken that's right down the corner of Lockwood. That's one of the most prominent chicken joints in the city. And I recommend if you're ever in Houston, you got to stop by Frenchie's.

But, you know, what Chris is basically pointing out is that he caught the wave and now he's positioned himself to where he's the authority in that space right now, which kind of leads me to my next question. How has becoming a real estate investor, if taking on this type of project and doing what you're doing, how has it impacted your life as an individual?

Man, it's been tremendous, I would say, because I've kind of found my calling and my voice and my way to empower our community. Real estate, number one, is the largest first generation wealth creator of any vehicle of investment you can get into.

And so for me, also, you know, it's one of those things where everybody needs a place to live. And every business that has an office is in real estate. It's something that's an anchor of our society, of our economic world, of everything. And so being able to get into real estate and create this model and this impact and affect so many people has been tremendous. I literally have, especially with the crowdfund project, man, I got people from Fifth Ward that

maybe they put in $750 or $500 and they're messaging me and they're like, thank you for giving me the opportunity to invest in my community. I never would have thought I would be in a position to do anything like this. It's brick by brick. That makes it priceless. And it also shows us that we don't have to be mad at Oprah. We ain't got to wait for LeBron. We can collectively pool our money and we can protect our neighborhoods and we can make money at the same time. I've said this so many times, like we have enough money within our communities.

We have enough money within our communities that we don't need really any outside support or help to redevelop and rebuild Black Wall Street, if you will. And I think every Black community, at least prominent Black community within any major city, had a resemblance of Black Wall Street, how we actually...

We worked together. We had our businesses. And yes, we've been under attack and a lot of our communities have been decimated. But I agree with you, Chris, we don't have to wait for Oprah, LeBron or anyone for that matter. We got Chris Senegal on the ground, boots laced up, and he's putting in the work and he's showing all of us the blue.

the blueprint. I'm 44 years old and I'm learning a lot from you. And I don't know exactly how old you are, but I'm going to assume you're somewhere in your early, late to mid-20s or early 30s. I'm 36. Yeah, so okay, so he's mid-30s. So, I mean, it's very impressive because, you know, at the end of the day, as Black people, we see so many things pertaining to success that oftentimes I don't think

is realistic when you really break it down from a long-term perspective and say, how does this benefit you as an individual? How does it benefit the culture? How does it benefit the community? And to see someone like yourself that's actually

willing to share the information then allow people within the community to participate in the overall focus and mission and this isn't some Ponzi scheme where we see a lot of this shit going on where we see people claiming pro-black and you don't have to mention any names and say I'm Mr. Real Life and all this stuff and it's like where's the work

Right. Where's the proof? Where's the participation? All the things that you're saying, Chris is showing that. Chris actually has the proof. You can pull up to Fifth Ward and see several Christmas developments that have been completed and those that are actually underway. That's impressive at the end of the day. And I think the purpose of me

Having you on my podcast and having this opportunity to chop it up with you is that this information needs to be heard, needs to be seen. People need to know more about Chris Sinegal. They need to know that you exist out here, especially those that look like us. So it's just, you know, I know I went on a little tangent there, but I've been very impressed with your overall body of work. My next question is, what advice would you have for young Black investors that are across America,

They're living in communities like fifth war and they're seeing that there may be gentrification happening around them. What advice do you have for them in regards to getting in the game and being able to succeed and succeed at a high level?

Number one, I would say surround yourself with somebody local that has the experience that you need to get to the next level. We spend so much time trying to figure it out on our own. Sometimes we take pride in saying, I got it out the mud. I got it myself. I mean, that's the longest road to getting to anything you want to do.

Even if you have to find somebody and you have to trade, give them some type of value, whether it's monetary or whatever, do that and make sure that you make it mutually beneficial because that's the only way that you really get in. For me, it took me a while to find the right mentor because coming from fix and flip and going to new construction development was a huge jump.

And it's not a lot of people out there that are willing to give you that insight. So you have to be willing to sacrifice. You have to be willing to, you know, bump your head a couple of times trying to get people to give you the game and just do that. Now, luckily, since I have kind of created the model, I'm here too. You can always reach out to me and I have a pretty strong network. If I can help you in your city, I know somebody may be in a position to help you. I definitely will do that. But I would say, number one, if you're trying to get into development,

Join a local builders association for sure, because that's where you're going to meet the builders and the builders will have networks with the developers, network with the real estate brokers that are doing new construction, represent new construction builders. Those are the people that you need to have in your corner because they'll be able to give you the insight on what's needed to go to that next level. And like I said, make sure while it's great when you can see like a lot of potential and some abandoned real estate or some underutilized real estate,

It's attractive to think I can turn it around, but make sure there's some type of driver around. Make sure that there's something else that's going to attract people to that neighborhood because, you know, it makes it a lot easier for you to get your project to a successful point.

Yeah, I think those are the main keys. Build a strong team. That's more important than any technical thing I could tell you because all those are like mindset and approach things. And each deal is different. Everything else has an uncontrolled variable in it. But you got to have those key factors in there. I agree 100%. Well, you also mentioned something driver. Individuals always want to touch on words or acronyms that we're using. So our listeners and audience that are new or interested in getting into the game understand what it means. Can you break down what you mean by drivers?

Yeah, so something that's happening, something new that's coming, something that attracts you to a neighborhood or drives people to that area. Correct. So it could be, you could start seeing more new construction and people are interested in moving to that neighborhood as a driver.

It could be an announcement about, you know, a new event space or something, or it could be in bigger cities like, you know, it could be a new sporting arena or something like that. It could be just the city announcing redevelopment, a new apartment complex, new retail coming. Anything like that is a driver. And, you know, that lets you know that once those businesses come into that community or that attraction comes to that community, more people will want to live close to it.

Absolutely. Yeah. And so, yeah, those are the kind of signs you're looking for.

Well, thanks for breaking that down. And that's kind of that driver is similar to what we use in the commercial real estate term as anchor. You know, it's that anchor property. Think Walmart, think KFC, think Bank of America, Wells Fargo. You know, anything that's going to drive in traffic and attention, as I just used that word driver, that's basically what that means. So, Chris, thanks for breaking that down, because I think when we're having these conversations, it's important because those that are in the industry, they understand it and know it.

but we definitely want individuals that are new and coming across this information to really grasp and understand what these terminologies mean. Because at the end of the day, that's one of the big things you have to be able to wrap your mind around is the real estate terminology and understanding the vernacular and what each word means and its purpose. So thank you for clarifying that. Now in closing, you've been great, man. You dropped a lot of great gems and whoever comes across this, I'm telling you guys, like you got the blueprint. All you gotta do is either reach out to Chris and take action. Those are the two biggest things

And what Chris just shared as far as his advice, he's correct. You know, in my industry, I get a lot of people that come to me that, you know, they want to get into business. They want to know how to sell multi-million dollar house. They want to know how to work with athletes, et cetera. And I tell you, you got to learn the business first and foremost. That's the biggest thing. You got to learn the business. You got to put in the work. And if you can reach out to people that already have a success in the space that you're looking to get into, reach out to them and be willing to do whatever's necessary. That's ethical and makes business sense. And that, you know, doesn't go against any principles that you live by, but

If that's the case, be willing to go get their coffee, be willing to walk their dog, be willing to wash their car, be willing to go pass out flyers, whatever it is to get the knowledge and information. You know, you can't expect free game. I mean, you know, Chris is giving free game, but when you want someone time outside and when they're giving you free game, you have to be willing to give something of value in exchange as Chris just shared. And I live by that. And so thanks for, you know, really pinpointing that because I think that's really important because a lot of times the expectation is,

you know it, you should just give it to me, you know? Or you're having all the success, why don't you just hand it over to me? And it doesn't work like that, unfortunately. That's just not how it works. So there has to be even value in exchange. Now in closing, I wanna ask you something. I want people to really know, you know, in real time, like not only are you on the ground,

doing all of this and making things happen. But there are a lot of pitfalls in the industry of investing, development, right? And a lot of challenges that you face. Like you said, we see the HGTV shows, we see them flip this, flip that, and they make it look all easy, et cetera. But the reality is, you know, you can lose a lot of money in this industry and this business.

you don't know what you're doing or if you just so happen things unexpectedly take place. So what are some challenges, real life challenges that you've experienced as an investor that maybe were like potentially, you know, like, hey, this could put me out of business or whatever the case may be. What are the challenges that you face? How did you deal with them to overcome them? I would say the biggest one for me was getting into the development of the new construction, not realizing that.

How much it really costs to get in there and having a whole bunch of unforeseen delays, you know. Yeah. When you think about new construction, you think it's just, oh, I'll just have an architect draw up some plans, bring it to the city and get it approved. Yeah, not like that. Yeah, there was things that you wouldn't even think about, like the infrastructure. Like I submitted my plans to build my houses and then got to the very end and they were like, well, guess what? There's no sewer running in front of these houses on the street.

So now you got to spend $40,000 to put a sewer line in and remove the asphalt from the street and then replace the street. I'm like, wow. Other things are just like not having the proper guidance, man, is really what a lot of the other stuff boils down to. Working with the wrong team, losing money, investing in people, paying consulting fees from people that talk a really good game but can't really show you what they've done. Can't deliver. Can't deliver.

Can't deliver. You know, it's a lot of them out there. There's a lot of them. It's a lot of them. A lot of them have pure intention. They have a lot of ambition. They just don't have what it takes to bring it across the finish line. They're good at the delivery, but they're poor at the execution. Let's just put it that way. 100%. 100%.

So yeah, so I think those are gonna be the biggest things. And I've had other things too, like in the fix and flip world, man, there's always gonna be something unknown. No matter how well of an estimate you do on a rehab, you don't really know what you have until you open everything up. When you got the walls opened up, when you got all the plumbing exposed,

or you get deep in the attic and you start looking at all the wiring, you really don't know all the problems. There's always going to be an extra expense that you're not planning for. So you also have to put that contingency in there. And when you don't have those contingencies, that's when you go over budget and you could potentially lose your deal.

Yeah, so I've had that happen, man. I got a long list. The list goes on. And bad deals. When I was early on, I thought, man, I don't need a title company. I can just save that money and just buy it from the seller. There was a lot of other liens on the property. Clouds on the title, conferences. Exactly, and those people superseded my purchase, so I ended up losing that money. That's a hard way to learn. I call it real-world tuition. Yeah.

Yeah, you can't get that in the college. Yeah, well, you guys listen to this where Chris is basically sharing, like, this is learning through trial and error, right? And oftentimes, especially for individuals like us, people of color, we don't always have that access to somebody that's

has wealth or has that knowledge that is having success in the real estate field. So a lot of the things we've had to learn has been through trial and error, you know, and that's that it stings. It hurts when, especially when you're losing other people's money too, you know what I mean? And you have to explain, I've lost this money and now I'm going to figure it out and make up for this. And you know, that's the key right there. It's like, it's like in football or sports, you get knocked down, you got to get back up. Right.

And you got to figure out how do I keep moving forward to focus on the goal and get towards the finish line. And that's something that, you know, hearing you share that, I can relate to some experiences I had. You know, I think our stories are a little parallel, how you talked about, you know, working early on for someone else and realizing that wasn't it. I went through that. Yeah.

my wife, we got into flipping in 07 and 08 and then the market crash, right? But during that period of time, we drove around fifth ward, third ward, handing out bandits, you know, flyers and putting up bank lines and filling calls, handing out letters and

you know, man, it's a lot of work that goes with that. But then when you get to the project and you start having to do the work, there's all these unforeseen things that are going to come up guaranteed. You can bank on it. So with that said, when we talk about how do you deal with those things, how have you, when adversity hits, what is that standard one-on-one now after going through the losses and the experiences? I'm not sure you still have new things that pop up, but how do you deal with them from a mindset of getting past it, dealing with it, coming up with solutions? Yeah.

So the first thing I always tell myself is whether I sit there and worry or not, the outcome is going to be the same unless I do something to solve the problem.

So I learned to stop spending energy being worried about, you know, what happened and what's wrong and immediately switch into problem solving mode and stay in problem solving mode. Because, you know, if you have to, that's the only space where you're going to rectify the situation. So, you know, if there's whatever the issue is, if you need a new contract, you know, you immediately start calling everybody in your network trying to find somebody.

If you need help with the city, immediately call in your contacts to see if somebody can help you figure out a solution for something that's going on with the project there. Yes. If you need more money, if there's any margin left, if you've got to sacrifice something, figure out who you can go to that kind of understand the situation that may be willing to put more money in.

And then at the end of the day, know when it's time to just walk away. Just know when it's time to say... Know when to fold them. Exactly. This is a fold. This is a learning experience. This is feedback on what I did wrong and not putting too much into it, chasing good money after bad and just throwing money into a pit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think those are the keys. Unfortunately, there's no magic solution. Each situation is different, but it's all about...

focus and perseverance on rectifying whatever's going wrong. That's the best and only thing you can do. Well, I like what you said. Stay in problem-solving mode. Come up with the solution. I live by that, too, as well. I always say, shit's going to happen. It's all on how you're going to respond and how you're going to focus on what's the solution. As you stay problem-solving mode,

In closing, this has been a great conversation and I'm excited, you know, again, to have you on and I can't wait to get this up so individuals can come across this free game and knowledge that you drop in here right now, man.

In closing, you mentioned one of the books that impacted your life. Actually, I'm reading The Shift for the second time with my team. And this is a really great, great book, especially during times right now, whether you're an investor, whether you're an agent. This is really more dedicated towards agents, but I think it falls into play for any type of business entrepreneur that's out there in the world trying to accomplish great things. The Shift is a really great book to read. But talking about books, what books have been the most influential to you and motivational to you?

I got four books that people have probably heard the name of all of them previously, but number one, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. That's the basic mindset shift out of working and trading time for dollars into creating ideas and creating systems and things that can create money for you. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, who interviewed 100 of the most successful people at the turn of the century and only wrote the book about the things they had in common about the way they think. And most self-help books now just borrow principles from Think and Grow Rich.

I would say Dale Carnegie, how to win friends and influence people. Yeah. I mean, it's everything you do is you're trying to win somebody over. You're trying to convince you're selling something. You're selling yourself. You're selling idea. You're selling a product. You're selling a service. You're selling something. And you have to know how to interact with certain personality types and all that kind of stuff.

And then the last one would be 48 laws of power. It's so many nuances to trying to get to that next level or trying to get things accomplished that you have to know how to move strategically. And while some of those rules can come across as ways to be sneaky or conniving,

It's all about how you apply it, right? So you can apply it with good intent and you can convince somebody to do something that is actually in their best interest that they didn't even realize was in their best interest by implementing those approaches to things that are in that book. But there are so many more. Darren Hardy, he has a book called Entrepreneur Rollercoaster that's really good about mindset things. So I'm really big on reading books about mindset and then finding mentors to learn the technical side.

Well, that's great. Thanks for sharing that. And a few of those books I've read, Think and Go Rich, which is a great read. It's really about mindset, perseverance and perspective. And then, of course, Rich Dad, Poor Dad changed my life. It really is what prompted and moved me into heavily like focusing on investing and, you know, and understanding how to build a business versus just being a business owner or just being an entrepreneur. Right. Or self-employed because self-employed, you just own a business that you're working in.

Right. And it's how do you work to create a job for yourself? And it's like, how do you work to the point where you can scale and get employees and actually a business that you can work outside of and then focus on building another business after that? So that is a really, really good read. And I highly recommend I still have that book and I read it often.

because it takes time to execute these principles in these books. You can read them. And, you know, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad a couple of times. And the first time I read him, it was over a decade ago when he was first dropped. Yeah, he's still making money off that book to this day.

That book right there. Thank you. It'll probably continue to be a high residual income earner for him for his kids' kids. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. So with that said, man, we're right here at the time. We've had an hour with you. Chris, it's been...

great to hear your insight, to talk about your journey, and to see the great things that you're doing within the city of Houston and the community of Fifth Ward, my dumping grounds where I grew up. Once this COVID lifts, I'm going to be back in Houston. I'd love to take you out to lunch and sit down and let's continue our conversation. We talked before, there's some things now that are nearing that point where I think there's going to be some opportunities for us to do some things going forward with what you've got going on in the community of Fifth Ward, and I'd like to be involved in that.

putting that out there. But man, how can our viewers connect with you? Where can they go to connect with you if they have questions, they need insight or just encouragement on their journey?

The best way to get in contact with me through email is going to be Chris at learnfromchris.com. Real simple. Chris at learnfromchris.com. You can follow me on social media. If you just type in my name, Christopher Senegal, it's going to pull up my YouTube. It'll pull up my Instagram, which is underscore investor. Those are ways you can just follow everything I got going on. Like I said, I'm always on there.

Dropping gems, giving out information, letting you know about the next video conference I'm doing or the next IG Live or, you know, getting interviewed by people. So my goal is to educate and expose as many people as possible to the opportunities that are out there, you know, in both real estate and entrepreneurship.

Well, you're doing a tremendous job with that, Chris. Again, I highly commend you. And people, please, you know, if you've got questions or you want to follow the blueprint, connect with Chris. He is one of the genuine individuals out here that's actually doing the real work, making things happen within the community. And he stands on that. So with that said, Chris, we thank you for coming on.

We appreciate the knowledge and the information. And I wish you much success. I know I'm going to be reading about you and seeing more of the projects that you're doing as we move forward. And I know there's going to be a lot more opportunity within our communities where we live and where we reside across the nation, just on not just the opportunities, but we're going to see more people following your footsteps. And that's a beautiful thing because what I want all our viewers to understand before I close out

Everything that Chris shared, that was a time period, especially for Black people, that this information was not available. And we are at a time right now, regardless of everything that's going on in our society, how Black people are being treated, all the things that we've endured, the way we gravitate and pivot and move away from

and the things that we've been exposed to is taking control of our financial destiny, which means increasing our financial literacy and then taking action. And the information that Chris is sharing on this podcast, I can assure you, you will not find it

readily available in many places, especially communities where we reside. And if they're in communities outside of where we reside, those individuals aren't very willing to share that information. So Chris, I thank you for being on our online podcast. Chris is someone that I can say is all in on not just talk, but in his actions. So Chris, thank you very much, man. And we appreciate you coming on. Likewise, man. I appreciate being on. All

All right, guys, be sure you go connect with Chris on his platforms. And if you have any questions, don't ever hesitate to reach out. You guys stay strong, keep winning out there and make things happen. And I wish you well. For more information on the All In podcast, visit LAVIPagent.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube at RodWatson23. No matter where you are in the world, you can connect with us for motivational and inspirational content.

Subscribe to this podcast series wherever you get your podcasts. Till the next episode of All In, keep believing, keep hustling, and keep putting in the work.