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Scaling and Syndications with Kent Ritter
In this conversation, Kent Ritter, CEO of Hudson Investing, shares his entrepreneurial journey from consulting to launching his own firm, then transitioning into real estate. He details how he used his experiences to diversify investments, focusing on real estate syndication after successfully exiting his previous ventures.
Avery: Welcome back, short-term shoppers! Today we have Kent Ritter, the CEO of Hudson Investing. Kent is a former management consultant, corporate executive, and has a number of startups that he has exited. He also formed Hudson Investing. So Kent, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? What do you do? And what are you working on now?
Kent: Yeah, I’d love to. So, born and raised in the Midwest, in Indianapolis. When I got out of school, I always knew I wanted to own my own business. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to own yet and didn’t really find that until much later, but I always had that in mind. As I was coming out of school, I thought that management consulting would be a great way to see a lot of different businesses and understand what works and what doesn’t, to just get a good understanding of how to run a business for when I found the right one for me.
Avery: So you went into consulting after graduating?
Kent: Yes, I did that for 12 years after graduating, lived in Chicago, and flew all over the country helping businesses solve problems that they couldn’t solve themselves. During those 12 years, I saw hundreds if not thousands of different businesses and got to see what works and what doesn’t. It was a really good education on how to run your own. So, in 2010, some partners and I left the firm that we were at. We saw a shift in the market and decided to start our own firm. The firm we were at wasn’t going to be able to pivot and make that shift, so we decided to go out on our own and focus on a particular area.
Avery: That sounds like a big move!
Kent: Yeah, a little bit of luck and taking the right risk. We were rewarded. That business grew from five guys around a kitchen table to 95 employees and $30 million in annual revenue over five and a half years. When we exited in 2015, that’s when my real estate career really started. We had capital from selling that business, and I didn’t want to have all my eggs in one basket. I had a stock market portfolio, but I hadn’t invested in real estate, so I started doing research.
Avery: You started researching real estate?
Kent: Exactly. I looked at what people around me were doing in real estate, and I started implementing some of their strategies. For example, buying a note portfolio or holding houses on contract. I also started doing some fix-and-flips, buying some singles and duplexes, and building up a small portfolio. At the peak, we had about 11 properties. At the same time, I started investing with others in larger multifamily. That’s when I learned about the syndication process, which is just a fancy way of saying folks pool their money to invest in something bigger than they could on their own.
Avery: So that was your start in real estate syndication?
Kent: Yes, I realized I could invest with experts and with other people in larger deals. That’s how I really got started in multifamily. I was doing a bunch of different things to find my groove and figure out what worked best for me.
Avery: Once you exited your company and had all this capital, what made you land on real estate?
Kent: Well, I wasn’t looking to say, “I need to get into real estate.” I was just looking for alternative investments outside of the stock market. I wanted to diversify. I was looking for diversification first and foremost, and I knew I wanted to explore other options.