REI Wealth Monthly Issue 15 | Page 41

INTERVIEW WITH VINCENT BALAGIA, FOUNDER & CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER OF STALLION CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LINDA PLIAGAS 2. Why is Texas one of the strongest states to invest in? The Texas economy and real estate markets continue to be widely recognized as one of the most robust areas in the country. Our "pro- business" attitude, low cost of living and the fact However, our lending area extends well beyond that we don't collect state personal income tax Austin, as we focus primarily on the urban centers of continues to attract new residents and businesses Houston, Dallas, Austin & San Antonio. at record levels. Particularly our urban centers of occasionally lend outside those areas, on a case by Dallas, Houston, Austin & San Antonio are case basis. experiencing highly above, we are seeing a number of very exciting encouraging, from an investment perspective. We loans currently. As an example, we recently closed a also believe that Texas is a "lender-friendly" state, $1.9 million dollar loan on multi-family property in as we are a non-judicual foreclosure state. While Austin. The property was headed to foreclosure and we hope to never foreclose on a property, we take we were able to step in a provide a bridge loan to the comfort knowing that our timeline to take a borrower to enable him to process a sale of the property back is very reasonable. property. This property was 100% leased to tenants, growth levels that are We will Given the growth rates mentioned creating current cash flow to service the debt. We 3. Tell us a bit about the Austin marketplace and the projects you are seeing? Given that we are located in Austin, we do see a large number of loan requests in our local area. like properties like this that have current income as well as a healthy equity cushion, in the event of a default. 4. Give us insight as to the real estate deals you are currently involved in. We are involved in all types of real estate deals currently, from office complexes to multi-family residential properties construction loans. to single-family new We like real estate that has some level of current cash flow or income production. A property that is income-producing helps the borrower to service the debt, but even more importantly, this level of cash flow gives us extra security in a default scenario, should that occur.