Interview with David Coe of FIBI Manhattan Beach

By Christina Suter on May 28, 2016 at 06:26 PM in Real Estate Issues
Interview with David Coe

FIBI (For Investors By Investors) is a real estate and business related networking group without the sales pitch. The group was originally started to create a venue where investors and business owners could learn from other investors, help each other, and not get sales pitches for books, tapes, or the program of the month. 

David Coe is is the founder of Freedom Growth, a company that specializes in real estate investing through self-directed IRAs. As a seasoned real estate agent and investor, David was first introduced to self-directed IRAs while desperately seeking a better way to save for his own retirement. Stunned by the opportunities that self-directed IRAs allowed, David devoted years to mastering the nuances of what is, and more importantly isn’t, possible with this type of investing. Freedom Growth is committed to helping individuals and small business owners around the country build truly diversified retirement portfolios with real estate.

David says that although real estate is unpredictable he loves putting a real estate deal together and he loves that real estate has a defined beginning and end. He says that although there are 'the sharks' in the real estate business, the majority of the people in the industry he's found to be good people and FIBI has allowed him to meet and work with many of the people who have great intentions. 

Education without execution strategy is useless; real estate is a team sport, it requires a team.

I asked David what it was about real estate that has allowed him to find or fulfill his purpose?

He says that as a realtor and investor he has defined his big 'why' (why he's doing something) and because his children and wife are his priority, both of those positions allow him to feel fulfilled. He enjoys being able to control his own calendar and schedule and the flexibility that comes with real estate that you don't get in the corporate world. He also enjoys the diversity of the industry and he is able to position himself as an expert in various areas of real estate. Beyond the freedom and time, David says that the financial freedom has allowed him to do work with nonprofits organizations, including his own, as well as being able to spend time investing back in his community.

Why be a FIBI chapter leader?

David said he and his wife started into real estate blindly and as they continued, he attended a real estate investment club and although he received some good information, there was mostly people there to sell him something. The meeting/environment wasn't conducive to learning or meeting people and someone suggested he check out FIBI Santa Monica and the high minded conversation and lack of sales pitches hooked him. He says he basically got his real estate MBA in the two years he attended because of the amount of good information he'd learned and after a while he decided to open his own FIBI chapter.

How do you run your chapter meeting?

Manhattan Beach's meetings are run by Matt Owens and David and they liked the idea of having FIBI unplugged. Instead of a speaker showing up with a canned presentation, they run a monthly panel. They pick a topic and find people who are in the industry and can speak on that topic. People come and share their experience and answer questions instead of coming with a prepared speech. As moderators, Matt and Dave ask questions and they encourage the attendees to ask questions as well. They like the organic, free flowing feel that a panel allows and they as moderators steer the conversation.

There's a lot of time put into a two-hour monthly meeting and David says they do it because they love giving back. He said he wishes he'd of found FIBI 11 years ago when he first started instead of 4 years in and he wants other people to have a better experience than he did when he first started. David says that every month he also gets an education and it's the best way to make sure he is continually learning and networking. 

David says that having a panelist exposes him to three times the education and he says it's easier to bring people in and have them speak on something they're experts in and that he enjoys the three-expert format better than one. 

David says that every investment in the world is right for someone and wrong for someone else. The same is true with FIBI, for example they had 3 panelists recently, one who fixed and flipped 4 properties a month, a panelist who did higher end properties, like one to two properties per year, and then someone who lended to people who fixed and flipped. As an audience member, there's a range of information you get exposed to when there are panels versus one speaker.

David's FIBI meeting is held the 2nd Tuesday of each month at the Manhattan Beach country club with registration beginning at 6:30.








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