June 30, 2022

Land Entitlements With Richard Beliveau

 Richard Beliveau is the owner and CEO of Volnay Capital, where he oversees all aspects of development projects for both rental properties and condo conversion opportunities. He identifies opportunities and negotiates purchases/renovations. He hires attorneys, contractors, and architects as well as oversees all aspects of Volnay Management's condo association management business in and around Boston. Additionally, he owns V 10 development which focuses on large-scale permitting and construction as well as real estate brokerage named Evo real estate group. Today Richard speaks to us about making deals, and land entitlements!

Transcript


 Josh
 Good day, fellow dealmakers. Welcome to the deal scout on today's show. We're going to have a conversation with Ricky and he's up north, somewhere in the bitter cold. Ricky, welcome to the show. 


 Richard
 Hey, thanks for having me. All. 


 Josh
 Right. Where are you? We're in Florida. I think you're in Boston. 


 Richard
 Know we're so we're Boston-based. 


 Josh
 Awesome. Awesome. All right. Ricky, tell us about who you are and what you do. 


 Richard
 Yeah, so I own multiple different businesses all in the real estate space. My first main business is Volnay capital. That's the real estate development company. We do projects ranging from two units up to 50 units. Those are either a mix of condo projects or rentals. We also own about 150 rental units located in and around the Boston area. The other next company I own is V 10 development. That is a larger scale development company founded in 2018. That pro that company is expertise is large scale permitting and construction. We've got an 85 unit building under construction. Currently we've got 173 unit fully entitled that we're submitting for our building permit in the next few weeks. We have a 385 unit fully entitled. High-rise 21 stories near outside of Boston in Everett, near the casino. We also just submitted another 240 unit development through V 10. 


 Richard
 Lots of large deals that we're working on and we probably have another four or five large deals through . I own a real estate brokerage Evo real estate group. We've got about 50 agents that specialize in new construction. They not only sell my products, but products for about 15 or 20 other developers, as well as any other standard real estate transactions. The only management is our management company. We manage 650 rentals and condos. That was formed about four years ago, kind of out of the necessity to someone needed to manage our own portfolio. We realized that there really should be someone managing the buildings we're building. And so we just started hiring ourselves. Kind of a completed the whole circle. Now we can find the properties, develop the properties and then manage them into the future. 


 Josh
 Awesome. What does your wife think you do on a day-to-day basis? 


 Richard
 So my wife actually works for me. She oversees the property management and accounting and that side of the business. She's pretty in tuned other than the development and stuff. She'll, I'll tell her I'm heading to a closing and she'll be like for what? I'll be like, oh, we're closing on a, a 30 unit development site today. She's like, which one? I'll say the name and she'll be like, I haven't even heard of that one. I'm like, yeah, well we got a lot going on. 


 Josh
 Yeah. My wife people ask my wife because I'm a serial entrepreneur own a few businesses and they go, what does Josh do? And she's like, I have no clue. So. 


 Richard
 Real estate real. 


 Josh
 Estate here just real estate. Keep it simple. Wow. You've got a lot going on. What does a day to day life look like for you? Like what, what tasks are you strategically focused on running multiple companies? 


 Richard
 So, yeah, so I think we, I've got a great team in place now. So, I have team members who oversee the vulner capital small project. We have, vice-president and then other staff that help oversee those projects as well as my business partner in the brokerage VJO general contracting. I met him in 2013 and when I started the brokerage together with another partner, Ryan and pony, but the three of us, he owns a construction company. We self perform all of our own projects. So he handles construction. My team handles everything on that side. I'm really in a management role, same with the management company. We've got two guys that oversee one does the condo side one does the rental side. I'm just kind of overseeing that while my wife does the books. The 10 is when what's really taking up a lot of my time, which is these larger scale projects, which is the newest business that we're working on. 


 Richard
 And, a lot of that is just, these projects take a long time. It's really just having patients in the long slog to get them through entitlements. 


 Josh
 Yeah, totally. How in the world did you get your start in this? Like where you, like, were your parents into real estate? Like you grew up swinging hammers on a construction site, like, how'd you get your start? 


 Richard
 No. I actually, I went to Northeastern university and while I was a senior, I took a class on real estate finance. The interesting part is all I had ever known previously to that, of what real estate was house I grew up in. As I got to college that you could rent an apartment, then my friends became real estate agents. I was like, oh, you could be coming real estate agent. That was kind of the scope of what real estate was. I never really thought of it, anything else. Taking that class, opened my eyes to real estate investing in all different fashions, how to analyze deals. I graduated, I started working at Wellington management, which is a finance company in Boston, and I kind of made a goal for myself that the way the FHA loan structure was is you had to have six months of W2's before you could get your loan. 


 Richard
 I wanted to get a property and own a property within six months of when I started my job. I, I actually started my job in may and I bought my first three family in December. Literally as soon as I could qualify for a loan. 


 Josh
 Yeah. That's awesome, man. Now you and I let's just say we had a time machine and we went back to when you were studying real estate finance and you could have a conversation. How old were you then? 


 Richard
 19 or 20. 


 Josh
 Okay. We're sitting having a beer or coffee or whatever would the younger Ricky and you're like, Ricky, this is one thing you need to focus on the next 20 years or however old you are now. I, I probably guessed too high, but what, what advice, what direction would you tell your 20 year old self? You're like, this is something you really need to pay attention to. Okay. 


 Richard
 I guess the one thing that I wish I had shifted towards earlier on, and this is kind of is these larger projects. We spent a lot of years on the entitlements of smaller two to nine unit buildings. What you quickly realized is yes, the risks are higher on the larger ones, but the returns are significantly higher and they're almost the same amount of time and effort. In the end, if you, someone told you, it's like, oh, you can, do one thing and then do this thing. But one has double the return. Of course you would do something that's bigger. I think, I, I'm a big proponent of growth, people would ask me, they'd say like, oh, did you dream of building high rises? No, like, I, I, I've never been someone who like, looks into the future and says, oh, I want to accomplish this. 


 Richard
 It's like, I'm more just like steady growth accomplish one thing. Things will happen and you'll continue to grow in your career. 


 Josh
 Yeah. Yeah. Mine has always been too far into the future rather than, more in the present. I'm learning that as I get older as you can, I like big deals just like you, I love big deals, but man going risky when you have no base hits, man, that got me into a lot of trouble as a deal-maker what are some things that make you a great deal maker? Kind of give us your best deal ever worst deal ever. 


 Richard
 Yeah. So, I mean, I think our strong suit from our companies is really sourcing opportunities, right? So we don't buy anything permanent. We don't buy anything, where almost, weren't finding raw land and then we're able to take it through the entitlement process. Our real strength is whether it's me through my network or through the brokerage is sourcing off market raw land deals and that we're able to entitle them. You know? For example, we ended up on our sky tower project. We were able to acquire that for a very, very low number with a two year contingency for entitlements. And, it took us almost a year of negotiating with the seller to get him to sign the deal, but we just went back and forth consistent. And we ended up getting that signed. Obviously then were able to entitle the high rise. Another deal that we've worked on, which is 240 units, took us two years of negotiating with the seller to get him to sign. 


 Richard
 It's, I think we're, we understand that this isn't a quick turnaround and that we're patient. 


 Josh
 Yeah. All right. Some of the best deals you've worked on are these deals that take forever w talk to us about maybe a deal that has gone wild and looking back, what could you have done differently? 


 Richard
 Yeah. The, I guess the only deal that we've ever at, we've always made money on every deal we've ever done. We've never, we do have a deal right now that just finished up where w the profit margin will be very small. I mean, so we'll be making, 5%, 6% after two years, not significant. I mean, I guess if the money had been in the stock market and had plummeted right now, the investors will still be up. The, what happened on this deal is we looked at a site and we said, what is the, as of right option? Because the seller wouldn't take a contingency. We said, what's the, as of right option, we ran the numbers based on that. We said, if were to get approved for the, as of right, we could break even, or make a couple bucks in this scenario. And so we bought the property. 


 Richard
 We thought went through the journey. We thought we would, no matter what, we'd be able to get four to six units on the site. After the, a long journey, lots of pushback from the politicians, the community, everyone was ant by the project. We ended up at the worst case scenario. We built, we ended up getting approved for the asset of right, three units with three parking spots. We just sold it last week. We'll make a small 6%, 5% return on the investment, but even in that sale. I think that's, it's a lesson that there's always risk in this, but you really need to be cautious on what the downside risk is. Like, I'm completely comfortable putting up money for architecture engineering. Whether it's, 20 to, a hundred thousand X on an entitlement project that can make millions, right. What you don't want to have happen. 


 Richard
 This is where really fall is buy a property that's worth like 400 and pay a million and then not get approved, or have someone sued. Right. And then your underwater 600,000. Right. I think, you know, contingencies are vital. 


 Josh
 What does, as of right, explain what that is. 


 Richard
 It has a right project is when you follow the zoning codes for that area. In that example, I was talking about the lot size was a 3000 square foot. Lot. The Florida area ratio right far was a one. If anyone who doesn't understand how that works, Florida area ratio is equal to the size of the lot, times the number. If it's a one on a 3000, you can build a 3000 square foot building. If it's a two, you could build 6,000. In this scenario, we could build a, a building with 3000 square feet, and we could build up to 35 feet tall. We had setbacks that we had to follow. We had to do one part in that size. You would do one parking spot. By completing all of those, it became an as of right option in Boston. That's very rare, almost everything that you propose needs a variance. 


 Josh
 Okay. Now, as you're looking at a property, what are some things that you look for to make it a good deal for you? What are some red flags where you'll go, heck no, I'm out. 


 Richard
 I guess from the standpoint of what we're really looking for is we try to do a deep dive before we move into any deal on the w where it's located, what the zoning is, what the worst case scenario is. There precedence in the area for this type of project and, so that allows us to get into deals that, have the best opportunity of approval, right? Cause that's in this industry, it's really is all about pipeline. If you can get more than 50 to 70% of your projects approved, you are you're in a great spot, right? Because the profit margins are so large through entitlements. That's, I think the main key, what we've really looked to avoid is trying to do density in areas, surrounded by single families or in, areas that are zoned for singles or twos. It's just, we did that in the past. 


 Richard
 It just ends up being such a long slog in a grind that now we're really looking for per, for properties located more on major corridors where there's more appetite for larger scale projects. 


 Josh
 Yeah, yeah. Entitlement deals, right. What, what is, how did you end up into this? Cause you got, commercial, you started in real estate, you bought your first, multifamily, you six months on the job and here you are doing, big buildings, condominiums, large projects, entitlement, like talk to us about how you got into that space from where you were. 


 Richard
 Yeah. It kind of just run you through. Originally I had no intent of doing this, right? It was, I was going to buy rental properties as an additional income to my finance job. After buying three rental buildings, I actually ended up having to pivot into doing condo conversions because the market in Boston had increased to a point where, what people were paying for multi-families in my firm, for me personally, it wasn't cash flowing enough. Right. I wasn't comfortable with the returns and the, what was happening is those investors. They knew the market was about to take off, which is what I knew, but they were willing to lose money every year, early on for the future value of appreciation as a new investor, I can't be losing money. I'll never won. I'll never get the loan. To the, I just wouldn't have the cashflow to support it. 


 Richard
 Right. At that time, I that's what opened my eyes and looking and say, so what's a condo conversion. They've been happening all over other areas of the city, but they hadn't been happening where I was. My main investment was, which was in east Boston. We decided to, buy a three family and do condos. That's so kind of forced by the pivoting of the market, through meeting my attorney. He was a zoning attorney in east Boston. He and I started talking and it ended up coming up with what this whole concept was of entitlements and how to permit stuff. And, we started small and, we did, we took a, a two family and turned it into a four family and then it just grew from there. 


 Josh
 Super cool. All right. So I just did a quick search. Now this is completely off topic, but let's have some fun mark Wahlberg. Right? Chris Evans, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Ooma, Thurman, Eli Roth. There's a, there's a bunch of actors who are from Boston. If you could be in any movie with any one of those actors, who would you want to go and do a movie with, 


 Richard
 Have to say, Matt, Damon, 


 Josh
 Matt Damon, what kind of movie? All right. Me, you and Matt Damon are going to do a movie together. What kind of movie are we going to create? Action, drama, romance? Like what are your thoughts? 


 Richard
 I mean, I think we would have to get into some type of action movie with him. We'll go with the, we'll go with an action flick. 


 Josh
 Yeah. With one of your condos in the background. He's like repelling down the side and you and I are his teammates. 


 Richard
 Exactly. 


 Josh
 All right. I like it. I'll. 


 Richard
 Love you. You're the villain. 


 Josh
 Why am I the villain? It's the hat. It's the hat and the old guy. T-shirt so, all right. So, so we're going to do this movie. I'll text, I'll text Matt later on and let them know we're going to do this. As you're in Boston, building this stuff, what does the future look like? For Ricky and your family and your business? Like what, how do you're winning? What direction do you guys want to go? 


 Richard
 Yeah, I mean, I think it's to continue to progress the business and grow as we've, as we have since 2010 and, to continue to deliver high quality rental buildings and condo buildings to Massachusetts and as well as the other businesses looking to continuously expand, I think the management business can really take off. I mean, I think we're 650 units now. I'd like to see that into the thousand to 1500 units in the next year. That's kind of a goal I've set for the team. Really just, you know, continuing to progress. 


 Josh
 Got it. Mindset wise, go back. And, you're, you just signed up for real estate finance course mindset then, and some of the challenges you were facing in terms of mindset towards now, what's different. 


 Richard
 I would say then the distraction was how many beers I can drink that night, get out of bed the next day. 


 Josh
 Right. 


 Richard
 Now it's, juggling all these balls and, while still I have two children, family is very important to me. I want to be able to, trying to balance both spending time with the family and the kids with all the businesses. I think, one was the draw was to socializing and partying and going out back then. I think now it's trying to do of everything, but still, set, setting time aside for each. 


 Josh
 Yeah. Super cool. Yeah. When I was in colleges. Yeah. How many beers can I have now? It's like, man, how soon could I get to bed? If my kids go to bed at eight o'clock, it's a victory and wife and I get to have a glass of wine afterwards. Like that was the champion night, ? 


 Richard
 Oh, for sure. I think now it's like, now I'm sitting there having drinks and I'm, and it's not like, oh, I can't wait to drink another 10 of these. It's like, I can't even imagine how hung over. I'm going to be after these two tequilas. 


 Josh
 Oh, what kind of tequila do you like? 


 Richard
 Casa Migos, Casas will mostly mez cow. 


 Josh
 Yeah. One of my favorite go-to is Mulago grow. I just think that tastes so good. It's not too expensive. What's the one, what's the one that has the bell on the top of the bottle. It's like, that one's pretty good. Is that the one you like? Yeah. Yeah. We just, I brought one of those bottles home there. It's only it it's super expensive compared to like a Milagro or entry, but it tastes so good. I'm a huge fan. Next time we get together, we'll have a glass of that. How do you, how do you prefer ice salted? How do you like it. 


 Richard
 On, on the one rock, but no, for everyone listening. So this is a little story. We went out to a dinner, me and my business partner and another developer. He came in all excited and fired up and he's like, let's get some drinks guys. And we're like, okay. He's like, I, the other night I was drinking Casa. I was like, he's always like, let's do some glasses of Casa as well on the rocks. I was like, yeah, I mean, I'm down the orders around. We, we drank them and then I was like, yo, it goes to order another round. I was like, Hey man, like, I don't want to like be cheap, but I just want like Casa, this little glass of Casa Zul at this type of restaurant can be a lot of money. 


 Josh
 It's like 30 bucks a glass. 


 Richard
 We'd like, he's like, no. He's like, it will be, he thought it would be like 27 to 30. I was like, dude, in a place like this, it could be much here. Or there's another round. He goes to order a third round and I stopped the waitress. I say, before we put that order in, can you tell me how much those are per glass, $90. We know were already $600 in before we'd over naps. 


 Josh
 I know I could have, I could just close a great deal and I'll go. I'll be like, Hey, give me, the 18 or the 21 or whatever. Even if I just closed a big deal and I got a pocket full of cash, I still go. I would like to see it priceless on that because I've done that before I've ordered a drink and I was like, what? 59, 90 bucks. I didn't even taste it. I just shot it. I'm like, I don't do that anymore. I think I could be a billionaire and I'll still go. I need to see a price list before we do this man. That's so funny, man. Have you ever, we used to do this in the real estate game is we, everybody would go around and we'd order and then someone would take off their hat and everybody throw their credit cards, credit card roulette, whoever the waitress or waiter or whatever, they would pull it out. 


 Josh
 Whoever gets their card picked would be the one who pay. Did you ever do something like that? 


 Richard
 Yeah, we've done that this night though. I just told him, Hey buddy, you're paying. 


 Josh
 You're the big baller who wants to order $90. Alright. Oh, that's so awesome. As you're building this out, you've got a bunch of different companies. 1, 2, 3, 4, all in real estate. How'd you come up with the name? Volnay where's that from? 


 Richard
 Yeah. It's actually the town in France where my family originates. A lot of people think it's my last name. So people call me Ricky. Volnay it's not. The it's the town in France where my family's from interesting fact, same town from the Chevrolet family. 


 Josh
 Oh. So maybe. 


 Richard
 Beliveau and Chevrolets were founded in the same town. 


 Josh
 Nice. 


 Richard
 Yeah, I suppose it was actually back. I'd been doing real estate since 2010 under no brands, just my own name. In 2013 into 2014, I was doing a lot starting at two condo conversions going still working full time, but I was actually blogging on bigger pockets throughout the process. I was getting a lot of traction, like people who were following the, the posts and bigger pockets had reached out and they're like, Hey, keep it up. You're getting a lot of traction. At that point I kind of was like, oh, I should come up with a brand. I S I spoke to my architect at the time. He was like, oh, I liked thinking of those names. Let's come back together in a week and we'll see what we have for names. We both had Volnay on the list from our research. So that's that cleared up the selection. 


 Richard
 The, that was it off to the races. 


 Josh
 Got it. Now you've got a bunch of different companies, right? If you were to, if you were to, let's just say a tornado came through and wiped all of them away, except one, which one would you be like? This is the one we're going all over. 


 Richard
 I thought you were going to give a little marry, f**k, kill on. You'd be like, which one would you. 


 Josh
 Oprah, Matt Damon, 


 Richard
 Mid evil real estate group. Volnay capital area Gill. I mean, I would say the one that would have to remain with, it's hard to say, but you have to stick with the vulner capital. That's the, that's the baby. That was, that was here first. That's the tried and true. I think you'd have to keep pulling the capital. 


 Josh
 Copy. Copy. With that, what does an ideal deal look like for vulnerable capital? And, who's an ideal partner for you guys. 


 Richard
 Yeah. So, I mean, I D any, we look at deals based on total project ROI. So, that's how we analyze our, our development deals. At least from the standpoint of condos, from a rental standpoint, obviously we're looking at it from a return on costs, but yeah, so, I mean, on a development deal, we're looking for something that we're able to generate a 20 plus, return total project return, which that can, give that can drive us over a hundred X, a hundred percent return. It can give our investors somewhere in the 15 to 50 range, depending on how it performs. 


 Josh
 Sweet. Yeah, man. So let's do this. Let's give you an opportunity to plug, maybe stuff that you're doing on pockets, website, a away for people. If they're listening, they go, Hey, I like this guy. Like Ricky, want to find a way to do a deal. How could people connect with you and do a deal? 


 Richard
 Yeah. The easiest way to reach me, you can find me at Ricky Volnay on Instagram. R I C K Y V O L N a Y a. You can also find my website Volnay capital, or you can email me it's ricky@lakecapital.com. 


 Josh
 Copy, copy. Let's go back to entitlement, because I think that this is going to be a, a topic that a lot of people are searching for and, wanting to know more about what are some key components in, a, an entitlement project. You're looking at a piece of raw land, and you're looking to scoop that up or a project and you go, here's my three things you need to know about this property for it to be successful entitlement. 


 Richard
 Here's the, a lot of people ask me that question, right? They're like, I like to look at it this way. It's someone with me. My, one of my good friends did this on a kind of a podcast. It's like, if you dropped me into a new city with no contacts and no money, how would I start? Right. Cause that's what a lot of your listeners they're looking at and say, I've never done an entitlement deal. It's like, throw me into central Florida. And like, what would I do? How would I do go about it? Right. I think, step one is I would start searching online and meet up with local real estate professionals. Right? Come in confident, even though you don't have a dime in your pocket, don't let them know that right. Come in. You are the big swinging Dick. You are the man, you are going to do deals in this area. 


 Richard
 You've got big aspirations, and go in and meet people. Right. Networking, the second thing is people are like, well then, well, how do I even know? Right. Well, so almost all of these meetings in any of these communities are public. They have to, almost all of them have to be recorded or the minutes are recorded, right? You can go onto any, into any city hall and ask for the previous 10 minutes from the zoning board or the planning board of that community. I guarantee what you're going to start to see on there is the same attorney's names, very repetitively. You'll see if there was 10 presentations, maybe five or six of them was the same guy. That's the guy you want to go sit down with, right? Because he's the guy who knows the most about the area. He's the one who does the most of the entitlements. 


 Richard
 He's the guy that you're going to want to sit down and use in that community, because clearly he's the one with the largest REIT. We will have the most information for you. Meet local agents to give you a sense of what the, what's available. Because you'll need them to tell help you with what condos was sell for what the rents will be and all that. From the entitlement guidance, find that expert in the area who can help you out with that zoning. 


 Josh
 Cool. All right. You find connect with some real estate agents in the area. What kind of questions are you going to ask them? What kind of questions are you going to ask the attorney to find these kinds of good deals? 


 Richard
 Yeah. From the standpoint of the real estate agents early on, you're just wanting to let them know that you're in the market and that you are going to be looking for opportunities and let them know what you're looking for. Right. So, Hey, I'm looking for raw land, single families, commercial that can be knocked down. It looked like to do a project that's either a mixed use or a multifamily. The, in this business, the, the, it all starts with the lead, right? None of no one can do a real estate deal if there's not an original purchase. Right? Yes, everything else goes afterwards, but it's really deal sourcing or getting an opportunities to fill the pipeline. Those can come directly from those relationships. I think it's key to show them that you're real, give them details of what you're looking for. Almost more importantly, is be ready and willing to act when they bring you a good deal. 


 Richard
 Good agents don't want to work with investors who pass on good deals because they'll miss out as well. Right? If it's an off market opportunity and they bring it to you and you're their choice buyer, and you pass or say, you don't pass immediately say you drag it on for three days while you're waiting and researching. You pass and they miss out. That might be the last time they call you. Right? You're getting into this situation, figure out where you're going to be getting your capital. Who's going to be your zoning attorney and be able to act quickly. Cause that's, what's gonna make these agents call you before they call others. 


 Josh
 Cool. In your scenario, you and I get dropped off with Matt Damon in an area that we know nothing about Matt Damon goes on and he starts shaking hands, finding local agents, you and I go after, the attorneys and, the zoning attorneys and capital, all right, what kind of questions are we going to want to ask the zoning attorneys? And then how we find capital? Because we have no money. Matt has all the money, but he's over there playing around. How do we go after capital? How do we, what questions should we ask the attorneys? 


 Richard
 Yeah. If you're early on in your career and you're getting into the, so from the asking the zoning attorney, when you sit down, you're going to say, Hey, I just moved to this community. I want to know, I, I heard the you're the best I want to work with you. I'm looking to get into project entitlements. I want to, I want it to get a sense of in regards to whatever town or city we're talking about, are there certain areas that they are pro development? Are there areas that they don't want anything touch and, is there a zoning map that of things I can look for? Then, and hopefully they're able to give that to you or give you a link to the city's zoning code. You'll be able to take all of that information and then be able to try to make the most educated decision. 


 Richard
 When the time comes, I have no money and I'm getting into one of these deals, you're going to need to find a local partner. Right? One opportunity would be the zoning attorney probably can make some introductions to you. You can say, Hey, I, I'm new to the area. I'd love to meet some of your, some other investors or developers in the area. There anybody that you'd recommend go meet with them? Got it. I look at it this way. Money is very easy to come by when it's a good deal, right? So money follows good deals. If you come across something, that's a great opportunity. It will get funded. There will be someone who will partner with you. There will be capital that will come into that transaction. So, that's, that would be the, those two steps. 


 Josh
 Okay. Now you're meeting with some investors and we're, you and I are chatting with them. One of the things we say is, Hey, we're working on some few deals. We're looking for, project entitlements for, in areas of pro-development and we're looking to meet local investors. What kind of deals do you like? Right. And they'd say, yes, yes. They tell us the exact kind of deals that they like to invest in. Right. Do you, at that point, what would be the next step go hunt for the deals, go back to Matt and say, what kind of deals have you drummed up? Or what's the next step? 


 Richard
 Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's continuing those, to continue to build a network in the area, right. Can continue to reach out to additional agents. And this game can't be forced, right? The game. This is not a game that you can get into and think you're going to just be like, this is the stupidest thing I hear people say that they're like, I'm I want to do, I want to find I'm going to get five deals in the next month. Right. It's not, whether it's five or 10 or three, that's not how this works. Right. It's like deal to find an actual opportunity. That's worth the investment. You have, you have to be patient. Like, people are like, oh, what's your goal? How many, how many transactions are you going to do this year? I'm like, I'll do zero or I'll do a thousand. 


 Richard
 Right. It really depends on how many good opportunities come. I'm never going to say no to a good deal. If but I'm also gonna, I get it of everything that gets brought to me, we probably pass on 95% of them. So, that's kind of, the way to look at it. 


 Josh
 You said one of the dumbest things you hear is when people like, Hey, I'm going to do five deals this month and they never done a deal in their life. Right. You're like, dude, what do you have to base that on? Right. 


 Richard
 Exactly. Don't you, can't the term deal. Right. Really means that it's not just a piece of junk. Right. You're trying to find something that's profitable and it's under market value. Those aren't just sitting out there. If they weren't there, they wouldn't be snatched up already by the market. It's not as easy as just like going on MLS and finding something that's been listed and buying it. That, you know, and let you know, don't I don't want to knock MLS there's are opportunities for stuff that's on MLS. That's, you could scroll through MLS and see a single family for sale. No one else is looking at it because it's a single family, but I might look at it and say, well, that lot actually can support four units. Right. There's, and the agent didn't even know that. The agent didn't even market it to developers. He just listed it as a single family so that there are opportunities in that way. 


 Josh
 Yeah. I love this. I love this. We sh we should do that one day. Ricky. We should go to an area with Matt where we don't know anybody and run this scenario through and see how fast we can get a deal on deck and do it. 


 Richard
 What was the, what was the show? It was it undercover? Billionaire? 


 Josh
 Yeah. 


 Richard
 That's it was kind of the same concept. They just had to start a business that was worth a million dollars in 90 days. 


 Josh
 Yeah. That'd be fun. Do you think we could do that? Do you think you could pull it off? 


 Richard
 Not that quickly. I oh, could I make a business? It's worth it. Like they did. It's made it's worth a million in 90 days. Yes. Not in real estate. 


 Josh
 What would you alright, so you and I are hanging out and we got some extra time and we want to start a business that we think would turn a million in 90 days. What kind of business would you want to build? Like immediately with me? 


 Richard
 Oh boy. That's I don't know. It'd be there. You'd have to get into the marketplace and kind of see what people need and what's available. How well, what's missing and who you can partner with. Right? I mean, in the end, it's gonna, anytime you're going to be successful in that situation, you need a partner because you have zero money and you need capital. So who's going to be your partner. It's very easy to make a million dollar business. When you partner up with a guy who's worth a hundred million, you could form, you could quickly set up a business together. That's worth over a million. I think it's, finding the right partner and then off to the races. 


 Josh
 If I picked up your phone right now, and I searched through your most common songs that you play, what would it be like the, for the past 20 years, what are some of the ones that come up as your favorite songs, your go-to songs? 


 Richard
 Well, right now it would be wheels on the bus and then solid land. You've been songs that I listened to now, but I, I liked music. Not, not like crazily into music. I like slightly stupid stick figure those types of Ray bans, but yeah. Country music, little bit of everything, 


 Josh
 A little bit of everything. What's your favorite? Like food type. Boston's known for donuts and some really good food. Like what? What's a, like, what's a good go-to place. When I come visit in Boston. What's a good go-to place that you just love. 


 Richard
 Yeah. So, I mean, if I'm doing just a dinner out, I would go to Abe and Louie's, which is a steak house that's been in the city forever located right on Boylston street and great sides, great steak, great atmosphere. If you're in the city, great place to go. 


 Josh
 Cool. During this interview, I, there's probably a question that I should've asked you that I completely screwed up and didn't ask you, what is that? 


 Richard
 How are you so incredibly good looking, 


 Josh
 Dude, you are a good looking dude, like non-gay, right? Like, right. I've got a wife. I'm happily married, but dude, you're a good looking guy. 


 Richard
 See, 


 Josh
 How does that happen? 


 Richard
 Yeah. See, I mean, that was the question. That was what you did. Yeah. 


 Josh
 How did the out of the rivers of Volnay two people fell in love and that's how you came to be perfect. That was great. Way to end this one more time. How can people connect with you this incredibly good looking dude? How do you, that's a good way to connect with you. 


 Richard
 Yeah. You can, Ricky, Volnay on Instagram or Ricky at Monet capital for email, 


 Josh
 Come close to the mic or the camera. You got a good mustache, like the foundation of a good mustache. 


 Richard
 Your laziness. Yeah. 


 Josh
 Can you really grow a thick one thick mustache? Yeah. Next time we do an interview together. I want to see the thickest nastiest mustache ever. Okay. 


 Richard
 There you go. We'll do the little handlebar. 


 Josh
 Perfect. Well, that's what we do on the deal scout is we talk about deals and deal makers. We get to hear their story and find out, their personality. I find that people do business with people they know like and trust. That's the purpose and mission of the show is to interview a bunch of different deal-makers and find a way to connect deals and deal makers together. If you and the audience are working on a deal, and you'd like to chat about it here on the show, head on over to the deal, scout.com, fill out a quick form, maybe get you on the show next. As always reach out to our guests and say, thank you for your time on the show. If you want to do a deal with them, all their contact information will be in the doodly do below, just click on their links and you'll connect directly to them till then talk to you all on the next episode. 


 Josh
 See you guys. 

Richard BeliveauProfile Photo

Richard Beliveau

Richard Beliveau is the owner and CEO of Volnay Capital, where he oversees all aspects of development projects for both rental properties and condo conversion opportunities. He identifies opportunities and negotiates purchases/renovations. He hires attorneys, contractors, and architects as well as oversees all aspects of Volnay Management's condo association management business in and around Boston. Additionally, he owns V 10 development which focuses on large-scale permitting and construction as well as real estate brokerage named Evo real estate group. Today Richard speaks to us about making deals, and land entitlements!