Laure Marmontel Creates Passive Income for Professionals with Limited Time

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It feels like yesterday that Laure Marmontel was a working professional interested in joining the real estate game but unsure of where to start. She was holding back, having a set of preconceived notions that were keeping her from joining the big leagues—and the big dollars.

Things have definitely changed.  Laure Marmontel went from working a regular 9–5 to creating Florida-based Cornerstone Investment Partners, LLC, and leading high-powered investments in the southern states, where she’s amassed more than 1,000 rental units, mostly in apartment complexes, and a strong track record. As an active investor and syndicator, Laure helps a special niche of investors: professionals who cannot devote their time to active real estate investing because they work by billable hours (think doctors, dentists, attorneys, etc.). Time away from the office means no pay, so having someone they can rely on to help them invest in real estate is critical to their financial success.

“I always thought that to make money in real estate, you had to buy a house and rent it out or become a real estate agent,” Laure explains. “Then I discovered apartment complexes, also called ‘multi-families.’ I thought only companies or millionaires owned them and it was out of reach. Today, we play in their leagues, and through ‘syndications’—the pooling of resources from multiple investors to complete a real estate transaction—we are able to present multi-family investment opportunities in which busy professionals can participate passively so they don’t have to waste time searching for the right property, managing it or worrying about it,” Laure says.  Today, the portfolio Laure & her partner have ownership of is in the $120 million range.

Those investment opportunities in ‘multi-families’ allow for a portfolio diversification from more fluctuating assets like the stock market. Laure prefers multi-families located in the Southern states, which usually are more landlord-friendly, have more potential for economic growth and for real estate appreciation. 

“Middle-class complexes, usually built in the 1980s on, are our focus, as they offer an excellent upside potential through a renovation and are more resistant to the ups and downs of the economy,” she adds.

After a long and thorough process of due diligence, only a few properties have all the attributes that make them a great investment opportunity. “You have to kiss a lot of frogs (properties) before you find your prince, that one property worth acquiring with our investors.”

With a strong financial background, Laure understands the nuances of money from a corporate and individual perspective. In helping investors achieve exciting returns, her process includes understanding their personal and financial situation, listening, and answering all questions, explaining return projections—as each property is different—and educating them if necessary. She enjoys sharing information that otherwise isn’t readily available or that, through her experience, she has distilled in an easy-to-understand fashion. “We need to make sure that we are a good fit for each other; honest, open and compatible relationships are the key to a successful long-term future together.”

Laure and her partner also value transparency. “We don’t just send investors a check every quarter. Investors deserve to know what happens at the property, so we share the financial data with them and hold regular conference calls and webinars.”

“By investing with us, our investors participate in the ownership of cash-flowing multi-families that also grant them excellent tax advantages in addition to attractive returns, all which would have otherwise not been obtainable on their own due to time, knowledge, or capital availability constraints. We know that 90% of millionaires were made in real estate, right? So, why not us too?”

Her newest project, where she will share the benefit of real estate group investments in southern states multi-families, is an upcoming book Wealth For Women: Conversations with the Team That Creates the Dream, which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2018.  To learn more about Laure, visit www.InvestWithCip.com or www.LaureMarmontel.com.