Irfan Raza is a CPA that had an interest in building added wealth, so he started, as a sideline, buying, renovating and renting single family houses. At some point his real estate portfolio led him to become a full time developer. Today he owns and manages 64 properties with 73 units. Here is his story.
Irfan started in a typical way; he saw an opportunity and took it, acquiring his first property using his own cash. He fixed it up and rented it. After that was rented he was able to obtain a mortgage and used those proceeds, along with some remaining funds, to repeat the process to acquire another property and then continuously repeat the process. As he gained comfort in his strategy he found it easier to find people to lend to him. Irfan was busy working at his “day job” and trying to manage what he had, so he decided to hire people to do the work for him, freeing his time to manage his career and properties. Irfan’s original motive was to establish a retirement fund for his future. 10 Properties, “free and clear was the original goal!”
He started his career at a Big 4 accounting firm which he left after three years being more interested in a smaller firm with a better culture and opportunity to grow professionally. He joined Withum after spending a year trying out another accounting opportunity. After marriage, he relocated to central Jersey where his wife Fatema worked in our New Brunswick office. She is now a senior manager in our East Brunswick office and has spent her entire career here, and they have two young children. After relocation, he interviewed for several accounting firms and eventually was hired to work in our Princeton office. Already a CPA, with several years of experience he found that Withum was better suited for his professional goals. He worked his way to manager while building his “side business.” He notes that there were a lot of hours worked for both his professional career as well as his real estate business. Eventually, he left Withum just shy of 4 years here to devote his full energies to the real estate with his then 20 properties becoming too time intensive.
He started small but started, which is a huge hurdle many would-be entrepreneurs need to clear. Being a CPA, he is good working the numbers, propitiously using leverage to build his emerging empire. Looking at his present result it appears daunting, but he actually started slowly and acts slowly and doesn’t extend himself beyond a comfort point always being aware of the risks. He has a disciplined approach; and while sticking to what is working which are smaller properties, he is gradually moving into larger buildings with multiple units. He also keeps a constant watch on his ROI (return on investment) which can doom real estate investors that overreach.
Irfan has developed a virtual organization, eliminating the use of paper files, using full and part-time bookkeepers to maintain the rent roll and receipts, keep schedules of his insurance and mortgages, pay his bills and prepare cash reports and financial statements which are used to present to banks for financing, and administrative assistants to handle the myriad tenant issues and overall paperwork; all of which allows him to oversee construction crews he engages as well as focus on acquisitions. He uses a network of independent real estate brokers and agents that know what he wants and who doesn’t waste his time with inappropriate properties. He did this by clearly defining geographical areas and property characteristics.
In addition to his buy and hold strategy, he is also involved in real estate in other ways. In 2016 he became a licensed real estate agent. As an agent, he works only with investors and developers and has managed to exceed the median gross income of Realtors for the last 4 years. He has also acquired properties that he was able to quickly flip earning added profits and has done over 100 flips and agent transactions in under four years of being at his real estate business full time.
He still has all of his first properties employing a true buy and hold strategy. Irfan is extremely systems-oriented [his CPA background], uses detailed CRM software that keeps everything in order in the back office and focuses his time on raising money, continually searching for the best interest rates from banks and lenders and real estate acquisitions. Now that he has a respectable portfolio and loan balances, he finds that banks are now approaching him with competitive terms. It is a welcomed change from when he first started in 2009 when there was a very restricted lending environment.
He has been out of public accounting for four years but in the real estate business for ten years and feels he is just getting started and is excited about the future.
Good luck to him!
Do not hesitate to contact me with any business or financial questions at [email protected] or fill out the form below.
Contact Us
Contact Withum’s team of professionals if you have any questions or concerns.
