If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you might recall the November 2022 issue, which featured an article about investor Chad Zdenek. Chad’s work resumé is impressive. After college, he worked at Boeing for seven years as an SSME Structure Dynamics Engineer, where he worked on the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME). He then (with his brother as his business partner) became the CEO of Mobile Illumination, Inc., which he grew into the largest Christmas lighting and decorations company in Los Angeles. He also hosted a show called Inside Mighty Machines, which aired on the Smithsonian and National Geographic channels (it’s currently streaming on Paramount+ and Amazon), where he interviews engineers and contractors about the workings of giant machines, such as the largest hovercraft in the world and the C-5 Galaxy, the largest U.S. military transport plane.
In 2018, Chad changed his career focus to real estate. “Although I have a background in construction and engineering and have my general contractor’s license, construction is transactional. You only get paid if you’re working. Whereas with real estate, you have an opportunity for passive income, and that’s really attractive,” Chad said at the time. So, his brother bought him out, and he founded the real estate syndication company CSQ Properties (CSQ stands for Challenge the Status Quo). To help him learn about syndication deals, Chad turned to the internet, where he became familiar with Dan Handford’s webinars, podcasts, and YouTube videos. “I learned a lot from watching Dan’s podcasts and videos,” Chad said. “It made me very comfortable with what they were doing.” Chad invested in three deals with PassiveInvesting.com: a 102-unit multifamily building, a self-storage fund, and the real estate debt fund.
Today, reflecting on his experiences investing with PassiveInvesting.com, Chad said: “I’ve worked with and invested with five or six other syndicators, and PassiveInvesting.com has floated to the top as one of the best companies I’ve worked with. I started investing with them in 2020, but I’ve known Dan and some team members longer than that. They have really stood out as a great company. They have the resources to handle the challenges real estate companies face and are very creative in finding solutions a lot better than other companies.”
Manager of Strategic Investor Partnerships
Even though he enjoyed working for himself, Chad was looking for an opportunity to join a larger company where he could help more people solidify their financial future. In May of this year, he had a series of conversations with PassiveInvesting.com’s Director of Investor Relations Rob Gallo. A new position within the company was created: manager of strategic investor partnerships. September 9th was Chad’s first day. As manager of strategic investor partnerships, Chad’s responsibilities are threefold. “The first is to handle all the investor relations for investors in the western 12 U.S. states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming),” Chad said. “So, anyone looking to continue their investments, increase their investments, or even discuss their current investments—if they need help with anything—they’ll come to me.” (Austin Garwood covers the Central U.S., and Arvin Samadabadi covers the Eastern U.S.)
Bolstering the Real Estate Debt Fund
The second part of the role is for Chad to oversee and nurture all the Co-GPs in the Real Estate Debt Fund. (A Co-GP, or Co-General Partner, involves multiple entities coming together to serve as general partners in a real estate project.) “My role is to improve the Co-GP’s outreach to their investors and give the Co-GPs the tools they need to be more successful,” Chad said. “I will also vet and bring additional Co-GPs into the debt fund. Next year, we want to increase investments by over 50%.” The third part of the role is for Chad to represent PassiveInvesting.com, speaking from the stage at meetups, panels, and conferences.”
Helping Investors Navigate Their Journey
Chad brings a wealth of experience to investors, having owned, operated, and sold a business. His investment portfolio spans various real estate asset classes, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, U.S. treasuries, gold, and silver. Additionally, Chad has extensive experience in passive real estate investments from both the investor and general partner perspectives. He has also managed deals from inception to completion with CSQ Properties. “The magic comes when you tailor a solution to an investor’s objectives,” Chad said. “The experience I bring to the table in all these asset classes and roles will be extremely beneficial in helping people navigate their investment journey. In me, our investors will find someone who’s very attentive, transparent, and available to help them whenever needed. Once they decide to invest in a deal, that’s really the beginning of our relationship. It’s important to stay in touch throughout the investment to monitor how things are going and adapt if their goals and objectives change over time—and then continue to develop a long-term relationship.”
Education is the Key
Chad’s educational resume is also top-notch. He has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Loyola Marymount University, a Master of Science in Structural Engineering from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA). In 2018, he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Entrepreneurs’ Organization Entrepreneurial Masters Program, considered one of the world’s most prestigious entrepreneurial training programs. The program encapsulated the importance of adopting a transformative mindset for business growth and the importance of collaboration and visionary thinking in achieving substantial success. “A big part of the investment process is education,” Chad said. “It doesn’t have to be formal education, but I think it’s good for people always to be learning. And I’ve learned a lot from other people, so I love giving back and helping others learn. With my experience, I can help people become educated in passive investing so that they can make the best decisions for them. I love passive investing. I’ve seen its benefits in my life, and I love helping people achieve the lifestyle they desire through passive investing.”
White Glove Service
Although Chad has only been with PassiveInvesting.com for a little over a month, he has been impressed by the resources and backing provided by the company, enabling him to deliver exceptional service to their investors. “The investor experience is critical to PassiveInvesting.com,” Chad said. “They want to offer white glove service to our investors, and that’s not a one-person job. I’ve been experiencing the entire team—the whole backend support—that allows me to provide white glove service for investors. Everyone’s goal is to provide white glove service to investors; it takes a team to do that. It speaks well of PassiveInvesting.com and shows how much they value their investors that over the past few months, they’ve brought in people like Austin, Arvin, and me—people with a high level of experience. Other companies have investor relations representatives, but often, they just field calls and try to introduce the company. It’s more of a low-level position. They’re just saying, ‘Oh yeah, we have an IR person. Let me have them call you.’ But that person’s not bringing much value to the investor because they don’t have the experience.”
The Passive Real Estate Income Journey
Chad lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Kaytia, and five kids, the youngest of whom is two years old. They have three kids in private school, and his oldest daughter started at Penn State last month. Chad loves mountain biking, hiking and working out.
He is extremely excited to be part of PassiveInvesting.com: “I wanted to be a part of a company with an entrepreneurial spirit that wanted to keep evolving and growing over time, starting new divisions and new endeavors. And PassiveInvesting.com is very much that, spearheaded by Dan Handford, who is an entrepreneur at heart. We’ve seen what he’s done with the Pickleball courts. We’ve seen what he’s done with starting new funds, self-storage, car washes, etc. He’s an entrepreneur. He’s not afraid to try new things. He’s not afraid to bring people on to help achieve that vision of growth and expansion. I’m looking forward to helping grow the new asset classes Dan and Danny (Randazzo) bring to this company. I want to help grow the business, and the way I do that is by helping our investors establish their own journey in pursuing passive income.”
