By Roxanne Hack, California Business Journal.
Genuine, innovative, adaptable and strategic.
That describes Ryan and Kara Garland, the creators of Paradyme Funding, a new and novel crowdfunding real estate and finance platform that helps investors make a momentous shift into smart, authentic investments.
The firm currently services 200-300 clients per year, including individuals who want to invest in real estate without having to manage transactions. One example: a high-level executive with a big-name company who routinely travels and overworks to provide for his family. He borrowed money from family and friends to finance his first house flip. With Paradyme’s help, he has completed more than 500 other flips.
Another potential investor who had worked with his father in real estate found he could no longer carry on his elder’s business once he passed away. With the help of Paradyme Funding, he turned that legacy into an even more thriving investment.
Yet Paradyme Funding wants to do more.
“Until recently, real estate investing had only been utilized by a small, select percentage of the investor population,” Ryan Garland says. “Our crowdfunding platform was created to greatly increase the value of investors’ portfolios. Our mission is to create an entire platform of investments that is accessible to everyone.”
So, for real estate investors looking for something beyond typical high-priced, low-return transactions, Paradyme Funding finds ways to not only increase the value of portfolios, but build long-term investments for those also interested in longevity and security.
One such investment is in multi-family developments, which are widely considered recession-proof. After the Great Recession of 2007-2009, families downsized. Now, 10 years later, the trend hasn’t changed much when looking at divorce rates, recessions statistics, and the appeal of resort-style living that spans all generations — from millennials to retiring baby boomers. Instead of buying a large house, people are opting to stay in multi-family developments that have additional amenities like pools and gyms, easy access to trendy locales, safety features, and, perhaps most importantly, convenience.
“People are making five times their rent, which means people care more about the quality of life rather than just making enough money to put a roof over their heads,” Ryan Garland explains.
Paradyme Funding puts investors out in front of this booming opportunity – and makes sure the location is right too, by working directly with cities to help fill the needs of particular communities. They work with contractors, developers and decision-makers who know where there is a need, and what that need is. Their goal is to bring to fruition the vision of each city and how that might grow for its residents.
“Our current direction is to move alongside our closest five cities in their ultimate growth – growth that will be created by the generation of developments that each city actually needs to cater best to their current demographics,” Ryan Garland says.
This helps them not only increase their rate of investment but also work efficiently and with as few setbacks as possible.
That hasn’t always been the case. As is true for many startups, Paradyme had its hardships early on, before they developed a secure strategy that would give them complete control of every transaction.
“We had a few bad contractors and developers not do their job, or disclose where they were in the transaction,” Ryan Garland says. “Those investors did lose money. We decided to never let that happen again. We brought in a team of people that are better qualified than the sponsors who were just looking to get their deals funded.”
Their team now includes valuable support from a board of advisors, a director of development, wealth advisors and investor relations.
“We co-develop every transaction now,” he adds. “This allows us to have more control, and we have an in-house development team with a lot of experience.”
With that experience, Paradyme Funding is working toward having a more diverse portfolio of assets, diversified amongst residential single-family, all avenues of commercial real estate, including multi-units, mixed use, hotels, storage and land. For 2019, Paradyme plans to double their revenue and have 1,100-plus units under their umbrella – an 80 percent increase that could happen before the year’s first quarter is up.
So what’s the goal beyond that?
“Just keep going,” Kara Garland says. “We’re growing at such a fast rate. We have these goals, and they’re big goals, but they’re so tangible.”
The firm’s in-house development team will continue to move alongside representatives of each city and gather insight from each one individually in a partnership that would be beneficial to all sides. With completion timelines cut in half because of these relationships, Paradyme essentially guarantees its future, as well as success and security for communities, clients and investors to come.
“If our investors aren’t happy, we aren’t in business,” Ryan Garland said. “If we stay focused and we’re making good decisions and the right real estate transactions, they’ll flourish.”
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