Finding the Funding: How Private Lenders Support Real Estate Investors with Sal Suleymanov

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Episode Transcript

Ed Mathews (00:00):
Greetings and salutations.
Real estate undergrounders.
It is Ed Mathews with the RealEstate Underground.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
With us today is SolomonSuleymanov, and I hope I got
that right, sir.
He is with We Lend and he is aprivate lender.
I always get asked the threebig questions when I get stopped
at a coffee shop, a grocerystore, something like that how

(00:22):
do you find the money, how doyou find the deals, how do you
find the time?
Today, hopefully, we're goingto solve at least one of those
challenges.
Let's talk about money, Solomon.
Welcome to the show and thanksfor your time today.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (00:32):
Thank you so much, Ed.
I'm glad to be here andhopefully I can educate your
listeners.

Ed Mathews (00:37):
I know you can.
So for those folks that haven'tcome across yet, you're a
Northeast guy, but there's a lotof people out there.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about you and Wieland, and
your background For sure?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (00:47):
My real estate career started back
in 2012.
I was literally making coldcalls to people to see if they
were interested in selling theirproperties.
These homes were distressed,whether they'd be physically
distressed or financiallydistressed.
I've been through it all.
I used to door knock onpeople's homes, et cetera.
So that's how my real estatecareer got started.
Started with wholesalingproperties and then, once I

(01:08):
started understanding how themarket works and how just a real
estate transaction works, endedup fixing and flipping
properties in the New York Cityarea in the five boroughs.
So it was me, along with mybrother and my two cousins, that
really got this started.
And then 2018 came around.
We've seen a lot of deal flowby that time.

(01:28):
We're doing a good amount ofdeals, whether it was fixing and
flipping or developing.
2018 came around.
We saw a good opportunity tocome into the lending space and
we started lending out money ourown personal capital in the
beginning and then thatsnowballed into having investors
investing in our fund, etcetera.
Yeah, so that's my start inreal beginning.
And then that snowballed intohaving investors investing in
our fund, et cetera.

(01:51):
Yeah, so that's my start inreal estate.
To date, we've north of $600million in business purpose
loans, and this is nationwide,across the country.
Okay, so we're talking Nearlyall 48.
There are a few states thatwe're not lending in, whether
they require a brick and mortaror licensing, like Vermont,
exactly Vermont, north Dakota,south Dakota, but yeah,
primarily everywhere.

Ed Mathews (02:08):
So let's talk about just real quick.
I don't want to drop a term andthen not explain what it is.
So brick and mortar why don'tyou tell us why that's a problem
for you guys?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (02:18):
As private lenders, we're based out
in New York City, right?
So our headquarters is in NewYork.
We have borrowers that come tous and say, hey, I'm a New York
City guy but I'm looking toinvest down in Florida.
So if our borrower is goingdown to Florida, we'll follow
them and we'll look at theirstrategy and see if it's a good
strategy for them to get intoand then we would finance their
transaction.
Just having a brick and mortaris just no longer feasible.

(02:41):
It's just, it is not really notworth it for many lenders.
I see many banks, many bankstoday are closing up a lot of
shops because everything's justdigital these days.
Yeah, exactly.

Ed Mathews (02:51):
Our primary bank is Mercury.
They're based in Silicon Valleyand they, to my knowledge,
don't have an office that I canwalk into and go shake someone's
hand, other than theircorporate offices.
So when a state like Vermontsays, hey, we want you to be a
brick and mortar, what that saysto me is they're stuck in 1985
and they need you to have a bank, basically an office, in their

(03:13):
state.
I'm sure there are otherreasons, but it makes investment
a lot more difficult in thosestates which, basically, then
you're operating either withequity or your own capital, and
that is equity.
Obviously, it keeps theinvestor community tamped down
in those states, which isunfortunate, but because the

(03:34):
fact is that guys like you andguys like us actually serve a
really important role ininvesting and taking down
properties that are dilapidatedand have seen better days and
bringing them back up tocommunity standards and then
allowing guys like me to go outand provide those as appointed
homes for folks that live in thetown and the state.

(03:55):
It's a difficult situation, butthe fact is that it's just
because the states are stuckback in the 80s.
So let's get on to the goodstuff.
So, in terms of the propertiesthat you tend to lend on.
I get the impression that it'sa pretty wide array of deals, so
can you walk us through what aprototypical if that even exists
, a prototypical deal looks likefor you?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (04:16):
For sure.
We lend on various assetclasses.
The first asset class that westarted lending on when we just
opened up our company was yourtypical one to four unit cookie
cut, fix and flip product right.
I think that's the easiest dealfor anyone to come into.
You're strictly running numbers.
You're buying the property fora million bucks, you're putting
in $200,000 in construction.

(04:37):
You force appreciation.
It's a value add.
Now, tomorrow, once theconstruction is complete, the
property may be worth 1.6, 1.7million bucks.
So that's the first asset classthat we started lending on and
that was what we were veryfamiliar with because that's how
we got started in the industryourselves.
The second asset class thatwe're lending on is, of course,
multifamily five plus unit typeproperties as well.

(04:58):
So that's an asset whicheveryone loves.
But of course you have to buycautiously and I'm sure you've
been seeing what's been going onin the past couple of years
with the unfortunate, with theyield and the cap rate crunches
that everyone has been having.
A lot of investors anddevelopers have been caught,
unfortunately holding the bagwhere they bought the property,
let's say, for five or 6 millionbucks, and today it's only

(05:19):
worth maybe half of that, if notless.
So that's an asset class wealso lend on, of course, mixed
use, which is super simple,super easy to lend on.
But we've also started dabblingin industrial type properties
as well.
But for the industrial typeproperties, we're really
sticking to the New York Cityarea right now and we just
wanted to make sure we reallyunderstand the asset and then,

(05:42):
once we really get the meat andbones of the asset, we are
definitely going to expand intoother states that we're lending
in as well.

Ed Mathews (05:50):
Yeah.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (05:50):
But just having our backyard.
Our backyard being New YorkCity, we feel more comfortable
doing that in New York and thenjust expanding nationwide.
Yeah, the funny thing aboutthat is a lot of people try to
shy away from the New York Citymarket, which I don't blame them
, but that's our backyard,that's where we got our
experience in and that's wherewe feel comfortable starting.

Ed Mathews (06:10):
The New York.
Obviously we're a couple hoursoutside of New York, here in
central Connecticut, and that'sfascinating.
Like you, look at FairfieldCounty, which is the Connecticut
County that is right up againstit.
It's where a lot of theprobably the folks that are your
investors a lot of them live inFairfield County and they
commute into the city when theygo.
But the fact is that if youlook at the two different

(06:33):
markets, a four bedroom colonialhere in central Connecticut
costs you anywhere from I don'tknow half a million to 800 grand
.
That same property in FairfieldCounty, which is 40 minutes
away, is a $2 million deal, andit's just because of the
proximity to the city and,frankly, the people that live

(06:57):
there can absolutely afford it,right, it's?
a different world and it's inConnecticut.
It's a tiny state.
Don't get scared off of the NewYork thing, because the fact is
that those properties it's moreof an appreciation play than a
cash flow play.
You're going to make a couple,three points on a deal cash flow
If you're fortunate.
A lot of times you're going tolose money in the short term on
cash flow.

(07:17):
But when you force thatappreciation you're getting a
sizable return on thatconstruction and management
investment.
You're getting a sizable returnon that construction and
management investment.
And so that's where, if youread in the trades about folks
forcing appreciation over thelast four, five, six years and
getting in and out of deals intwo years, new York is one of
those markets where you canabsolutely do that.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (07:38):
Yeah, I totally agree with you.
And that's funny because I havesome of my borrowers that call
me and say, hey, I'm really notcash flowing on this property
that I'm buying in New York City.
Look, there are definitely prosand cons to every single state.
One of the biggest pros in NewYork City is exactly what you
said.
You hit it on the head.
The equity right, it's anequity play here.
The values just keep going upin New York and it's crazy.

(07:59):
It sounds insane, I know, butsaying I know, but that's what's
been happening for the past 10or 15 years and yeah, it's
really not a cashflow play hereat all.
And they're like you know what?
I've been looking at deals.
They'll tell me I've beenlooking at deals somewhere,
maybe out in Ohio, where I'mbuying a single family home for
$200,000.
What are you really cashflow inthere?
Right, the percent looksamazing, but the dollar amount

(08:19):
just does not make any sensebecause one small, one small
repair that you're Right andyou're done, so it makes no
sense.
But we still lend on thoseproperties out of Ohio.
I have no issue doing that.
But I just try to have themcompare, compare and contrast
between the two and usuallyspeaking, they'll stick to the

(08:39):
New York city market or they'llgo into a market like
Connecticut.
Right, I have some borrowersthat are now purchasing
multifamilies in Bridgeport,Connecticut, where they're
having a great time.
They're stabilizing theseassets and they're refinancing
it and they're reaping thebenefits.

Ed Mathews (08:53):
All right, yeah, it's interesting, right, it
comes down to what's importantto you and where you are in your
financial journey.
If you are looking to createlarge gobs of cash, then you're
looking to force appreciationand get in, get it done and get
out Perfectly valid.
And that's what, on the smallscale, house flippers do and, on
the large scale, industrialretail office multifamily

(09:17):
investors do.
On the much larger scale, andthen, from a cashflow
perspective, these days,especially multifamily that's
why it's very hard to cashflowbecause of the interest rates,
right, and, frankly, theinsurance costs.
So that's where, like we've hadin previous episodes not that
long ago, where we've had folkscome in talking about
self-storage and industrial,which is one of the things you

(09:39):
guys are looking atmanufacturing and returning it
back to the US from Canada,china, mexico and wherever else
Apple.
So today is the 27th ofFebruary and the last couple of

(09:59):
days Apple just announced a $500million investment in bringing
a huge part of theirmanufacturing back from China to
here and in that they're goingto need industrial buildings or
at least industrial land, andguys like Sal here are helping
their investors make a prettygood chunk of money on getting
ready for that influx ofmanufacturing.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (10:21):
Yep, exactly.
And to add to your point, likethe SoftBank and OpenAI, they're
all investing billions ofdollars in the States.
A lot of people were afraid.
I don't know if you want to getinto politics or not, but a lot
of people are afraid of thesetariffs.
But I feel like he's using thatas a negotiating tactic and,
yeah, exactly, and I feel likeit's been working pretty well
for him.
And there are companies such asPorsche now, car companies,

(10:45):
manufacturers such as Porscheand others that are now
considering bringing plants overto the United States to avoid
these tariffs, and I feel likethat's what he really wants to
do.
He really wants to boost up theUnited States economy and he
really wants to bring a lot ofthese jobs back home.

Ed Mathews (11:00):
The US is one of the largest consumer economies on
the planet and manufacturers whovalue revenue, which I'm pretty
sure is every one of them.
If you want to do business inthe US, you better have a
footprint here or it's going tobe very difficult.
So I get the forget thepolitics part of it.
I get the math right, yeah, andthe negotiation strat in terms

(11:21):
of getting people to seriouslyconsider moving a chunk of their
assembly plants or whateverhere to the US.
So that's great for growing themiddle class.
So I get the math, but let'sseparate from the politics
whatever.
But I don't care, Frank, for me, I don't care who's in the
office, I just want them to getout of my way.

(11:42):
That'd be awesome.
Same, Okay.
So, in terms of the property,so we were talking about $600
million is a lot of lending andobviously you've been doing it
for a while, but it also soundslike you're maybe going up
market too, in terms of the sizeof deals that you're working on
these days.
Right, Absolutely.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (11:59):
When we just started, we were just
doing those cookie cut one tofours.
Our average loan size at thattime, I think, was like around
roughly like $400,000.
Today it's doubled.
I think we're like an $800,000average loan size right now and
it's still growing.
And one of the biggest reasonsthat's happening is because, of
course, yes, we are expandingour products in the type of

(12:21):
deals that we're financing.
But a lot of these investors arebecoming a lot more savvy and
they're just changing up theirgame plan as to what they're
doing to these properties.
These regular fix and flipnumbers really don't pencil out
as much as they used to five to10 years ago.
What they're doing today isthey're having conversion plays
where they come and they take atwo family home and they're

(12:42):
converting it into condos right,so they'll have a vertical
expansion, They'll add anothertwo floors to the building and
now, boom, they just createdfour condos out of that piece of
property and it was a twofamily which they could have
probably sold for maybe up to 2million bucks.
Now they're selling out eachcondo for at least 2 million
bucks and we've seen so many ofthese going on.

(13:04):
Now.
It's just amazing to see, and,of course, with that, the loan
sizes are going to be going upbecause the construction costs
are going to be a lot higher foryou to.
Rather than just doing a fullcut renovation now, you're doing
a vertical expansion whereyou're putting in at least like
$800,000 or $900,000 inconstruction.

Ed Mathews (13:19):
Yeah, I've got a guy that I know, a friend of mine,
who's doing something similar onthe house flipping side, where
he's going around in central andnorthern Jersey scooping up old
ranches, adding a second floorand converting them to four
square colonials, and so he'sbuying a three $400,000 ranch
that has seen better days andhe's probably getting a better

(13:40):
deal than that and he's adding asecond floor and doing all the
bedroom work in the upstairs,bathrooms and playrooms and all
that and turn around and sellingthose for seven figure deals.
So it's in times like this,where the interest rates have
climbed and prices have stillnot dropped or collected.
Talk about when you're buyingthem and you've got to buy them.

(14:01):
Conversion is usually one ofthe few plays left when you're
in a market like this.
So it's interesting.
I'm actually pretty fired upthat you guys have embraced that
, because that's most lenders.
A lot of lenders don'tunderstand that, because it's
hard to project the ARV Exactly.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (14:17):
That's the problem, because a lot of
these lenders were notdevelopers in their past lives
or fix and flippers.
Right, we move with ourdevelopers because we understand
we've done conversion plays onour own before as well, so we
understand how that demographicworks.
So it was just beautiful.
It on our own before as well.
So we understand how thatdemographic works.
So it was just beautiful, itwas just a plug and play for us.
And we really understand themarkets that we're lending in,
which is really important.

(14:37):
Yeah, and that's also thanks totechnology as well.
Right, without technology, it'dbe hard to do, but, like you
were saying, that's like thelast frontier right now for a
lot of these developers.
Right, is the conversion playAlso ground up?
Right, there's a lot of groundups going on.
We recently just funded for oneof our really good developers a
beautiful ground up project inPark Slope, brooklyn, which is a
very beautiful area.

(14:58):
Yeah, that's a very strongmarket and those people that are
buying in that market arereally not rate sensitive, which
is key, and we'll get into that, which is a nice way of saying
they are very well-moneyed.

Ed Mathews (15:09):
Yeah, exactly.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (15:10):
And like I have like investors
coming up to me sometimes, hey,like, what markets would you
recommend to me to invest in?
And I would always tell themthe most important part is going
to a market where you know thatthere's money.
These people are not.
They're not afraid of spending,they're not afraid of putting
more money down in the eventthat their lender says I have to

(15:30):
drop my leverage.

Ed Mathews (15:37):
And they're not rate-sensitive, which is huge
Because they're dating the rateright.
They know that as soon asthings rationalize back into the
high fives or wherever it'sgoing to go, that they'll refi
and be done, and that's assumingthey're refiing.
They may just be writing acheck Exactly.
So it's interesting and one ofthe things that I think you guys
have done and have been reallysmart about is you stick to your
knitting right.
Yeah, I know it sounds like youdo deals across the U?

(15:59):
S, but a lot of like your newprograms, for instance, are
really focused in your backyard,so you can go out and touch it
and see for yourself exactlywhat an investor developer is
looking to do, which is greatfor protecting your investors,
which is admirable, because thetemptation it would be to spray
that capital all over the US andit gets really hard to herd

(16:20):
those cats after a while.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (16:21):
Yeah, it's very tempting.
To date we had zero principalloss, so we funded across 1,300
loans 600 million.
Thankfully, to date, zeroprincipal loss in our fund,
which, yeah, knock on wood, itfeels great and it's really a
big thanks to our prior, ourpast life of being developers
and flippers and my partner,moses, which is also my brother.

(16:43):
He's really head of creditwhere he looks at every single
loan before we fund it and justmake sure that one the sponsor
is purchasing a property thatthey're actually making money on
.
There's so many lenders outthere.
I feel like they're more of aloan to own than they're to be a
partner to the developer wherethey don't really care about the
economics.
The way they're looking at itis hey, you know what?
Maybe I'll take over thisproperty in the next couple of

(17:05):
years.
For us, it's important for thesesponsors to be purchasing these
properties, that they're makingmoney, right.
We want to make sure the exitis clear and there is a profit.
But all two is super importantfor us is their track record
right, their experience Ifsomeone's coming in for a
conversion play and it's theirfirst time flipping a property
or maybe this is their second orthird flip and now they want to

(17:27):
get into this heavy rehab jobwith a heavy lift, we say, whoa,
you got to slow down a bit.
We don't really want to.
We're not comfortable financingthis project unless you come in
and partner with someone thathas the conversion play
experience and listen a lot.
Some of these people.
They get upset, they don't wantto work with us.
They go to another lender thatfunds them and then they come
across so many issues and I'vepersonally witnessed that with a

(17:51):
borrower that came to us forthat loan.
He got a loan from anotherlender, had no experience with
converting.
It was also a verticalexpansion and he saw us maybe
like a year and a half later.
He's you guys are smart for notlending on this.
We're like why I'm stuck inthis project right now?
He's having issues with theexpansion and we're like all
right, we understand it sucks,but it's important to be able to

(18:13):
partner up with someone thathas the experience.

Ed Mathews (18:16):
It's really critical right, and it's something that
I admired about your businesswhen I was getting ready for our
conversation today, and that isthat having that experience,
from my perspective, is reallyvaluable in three ways.
One is, obviously, it protectsyour investor base.
The other two, though, it alsoprotects your clients, right.

(18:37):
You can suss out a deal ifthey're being a little rosy on
the projections, whether that'sthe project scope of work or
whatever, or the ARV that's yourwheelhouse.
It has been for years, and soyou're able to suss out if that
makes sense.
The other part of it is if theyfeel like they're getting stuck
I would imagine a lot of them,the smart ones at least pick up
the phone and call you and sayhey, what would you do if I just
got this curve ball, not reallysure what to do with it, what

(18:59):
do you think?
And so having that experienceis valuable.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (19:04):
It definitely is.
And what I tell my sales guys,too, is you're not just dealing
with these people and you'rejumping on a call and say, hey,
do you have a loan for me?
Do you have a deal for me?
You want to create value, right?
You're like you're adding valueto these people, yep.

Ed Mathews (19:15):
It's an exchange.
You're absolutely right.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (19:17):
If the person's having an issue with
their GC the GC walked out ontheir project and we've seen
this many times try to connectthem with another GC that we
have in our database.
Or, if they're looking for dealflow, connect them with a
wholesaler, you know, if theyneed an architect, et cetera,
like an expediter, whatever itis.
Try to connect with thesepeople, with someone, so this
project can move along.
And one you're helping yourclient.

(19:39):
You're killing two birds withone stone.
You're helping your client.
And two that client's able topay off that loan with no issues
, right?

Ed Mathews (19:45):
And then go do another project, which is
exactly.
That's right, and so it's a,like I said, it's a value
exchange, like you said.
All right, hey man, I can talkabout this.
You've built one hell of abusiness and congratulations on
that.
One of the things that we liketo do in this show is to get to
know you a little bit right, andI want to take you through our
lightning round.
We call it the final five, doit and basically five questions.

(20:06):
Here we go Define purpose forme.
What's your purpose?
What gets you out of bed onMonday morning?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymano (20:10):
Purpose ?
That's a great question.
I would say family.
That's huge for me and myparents came to this country
with literally a hundred dollarsin their pocket from the former
Soviet union.
So as a first generationimmigrant, I was born here and I
still consider myself animmigrant.
For us it's like the stability.
So the hustle and the drivereally translates to stability

(20:31):
and just making sure that we'restable and I'm not married yet,
nor do I have any kids, butmaking sure I'm able to provide
for my family but also have thestability important for me.

Ed Mathews (20:40):
I'm also curious about mentors that you've had
along the way, and so what's thebest advice you ever got, and
who gave it to you?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (20:46):
Ooh, that is a good one, the best
advice, and who gave it to me?
That is a tough question.
I recently got a coach greatperson, great guy.
I have two coaches I have alife coach and I also have a
business coach.
My life coach once said to meyou have to slow it down a
little bit, just relax and justenjoy what you have.
I think that's really importantJust slow down, take it easy

(21:09):
and look at the picture, seewhat you've created and just
enjoy it.
So right on.

Ed Mathews (21:13):
I love that.
So, professionally speaking,what is the biggest mistake you
ever made and how did yourecover At least the biggest
mistake you're willing to talkabout?
I think you learn a lot frommistakes, right, so it's an
opportunity to learn, yeah.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (21:29):
So the biggest mistake?
There was one big mistake thatwe made on a property that we
were flipping in New York cityonce, which was a nightmare of a
deal.
We were flipping a property inthe Bronx I was like a two
family home and we decided tosave a couple of bucks.
So, rather than gutting out thefull basement and digging down
in the basement and making thebasement larger, we're like you
know what this property is goingto sell, we're going to have no

(21:51):
issues, et cetera.
So we maybe saved I would wantto say $60,000 or $70,000
digging out the basement, weleft the property as is.
We gutted everything out.
It took us about two years toget rid of that property, maybe
a little bit less than two years, but we lost money on that deal
.
We did have a private lender onthat deal as well.

(22:12):
We borrowed money on it.
Of course, he made all themoney.
We paid him interest on amonthly basis.
He got paid out at the end ofthe day, but I think we lost
like $60,000 or $70,000 on thatflip.
But yeah, the biggest mistakeis don't be cheap.

Ed Mathews (22:28):
Don't cut coin.
I think that's huge yeah righton.
So I'm always curious about howleaders like you are sharpening
the saw, so to speak, right,whether that's through podcasts
or books or audio books orwhatever.
So I'm curious how do you takein information and who are you
paying attention to these?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (22:44):
days, so I do it in various ways.
I love podcasts.
That's one way I get myinformation.
I also read books, so I'm sureyou know the author, robert
Green.
I do.
He's a great author.
I was actually listening to hisaudio book this morning.
So I also do listen to audiobooks, but I also do read.
There's a really good book thatreally changed our company

(23:06):
around.
I believe it's called Measurewhat Matters.
I forgot the author's name, butthat's a really good book.
It talks about OKRs, yourobjectives for your company, et
cetera.
That really helped our companymove in a direction that we
wanted to move and do what wewould want to do with the
company in a really great way.

Ed Mathews (23:27):
Recommendation for that book came from actually
from our business coach, theauthor of that is a guy I
actually used to work for,indirectly.
His name was John Doerr, and heis yeah, wow, I just looked it
up.
I cheated so I had read thebook.
I couldn't remember who wroteit either, but the yeah, and
he's in the pantheon of of greatSilicon Valley entrepreneurs.

(23:47):
Guy really knows what he'stalking about, yeah, and I
worked with his sister too, andshe was one of the smartest
human beings I've ever met in myentire life.
I never met him, though, butanyway, so that's great.
Yeah, I think I couldn't agreemore.
It's.
Those are excellent books, andRobert Green, I didn't look that
one up.
Is that the law of 48?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (24:05):
Laws of power.
There's also another book I'mgoing to look it up.

Ed Mathews (24:09):
Yeah, I'll look them up and we'll put them in the
show notes so that way everybodycan access them All.
Right, last one, what does?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymano (24:15):
success mean to me.

Ed Mathews (24:16):
How do?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (24:17):
you define it as a company or for my
personal stuff.
Yeah, you.
I think success for me is this
might sound a little weird, butbeing healthy and having money
is great, but I think is usingthat money as financial freedom.
I would say it's huge.
Just do whatever you would wantto do.

(24:37):
Right, if you want to fly outto I don't know, you want to go
to Europe tomorrow, you can takeyour whole family, take a
beautiful trip out there.
So stability again, that comesfrom the immigrant aspect of
things, financial freedom and, Ithink, most important, health
and your, just your familyincome.

Ed Mathews (24:54):
I mean, it's interesting.
So I'm older than you by a lot,I assume, but you always read
about the old guy who's on hisdeathbed and they that guy never
wishes he worked more.
Yeah, it's always.
I wish I spent time with thesepeople.
I wish I traveled, I wish I didthis, I wish I did that You're.
It's very prescient, Okay, yeah, so when not talking about
lending or real estate or any ofthe your professional endeavors

(25:17):
, what do you like to do for fun?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (25:19):
What do I like to do for fun?
That is a very good question.
I'm a gearhead, so I love cars.
Okay, tell me more.
What kind of car?
In the summertime, whenever Iget a chance, I take my car out
on the racetrack Beautiful time.
I usually go to Palmer,massachusetts.
They have a really greatracetrack, sure, or?

Ed Mathews (25:35):
Lime Rock is not too far from you too.

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (25:37):
Yes, you're right, I haven't been to
that one, but I'm probably goingthis summer.
I'm also part of a car club, soI usually hang out over there.
What kind of cars usually hangout over there?
Talk about cars.
They have a classic and exoticcars.
So you have nice european specs, you have some cool old school
porsches like a 993 or like a964, and then you have american
muscle with the beautifulshelbys and the cobras, and then

(26:01):
your newer stuff like themclarens and the ferraris.
But yeah, so what do you?
I have an amg gtr.
Yeah, it's a beautiful car.
It's 2020.
The handling on that car isinsane.
I was in the car market.
I was trying to figure out ifI'm going to get either an Audi
R8 or an AMG GTR.
Coincidentally, I was in Vegasat the same time, so I was like
you know what, let me go tospeed Vegas.

(26:22):
So they had that track overthere, yep.
So I took both cars out.
I fell in love with it.
I'm like all right, I have topull the trigger on this car.
That's awesome.

Ed Mathews (26:29):
Congrats and enjoy the hell out of it, thank you.
So if folks want to learn moreabout you, or WeLend, or States
Capital, your fund what's thebest way to reach it?

Solomon "Sal" Suleymanov (26:44):
You guys can check us out on
Instagram or on any social mediaplatform.
It's WeLend LLC.
Or you can reach out directlyto me.
I'll give you guys my businessline it's 212-257-3888.
Along with my Instagram.
It's Sal underscore Solomons.
I'm sure Ed is going to addthat to the pop for you guys.
Yeah, that's how you guys canreach us.

Ed Mathews (27:01):
All right, Sal Suleymanov, I greatly appreciate
your insights and your timetoday.
This was a great conversation.
I'm grateful for theopportunity to speak with you,
so thanks for joining us.