Partners in work and in life, Steve Vigil and Suzan Meaux, co-owners of SVSM Capital, started their journey together more than 20 years ago. Both outgoing, and active in the community, they've always enjoyed getting involved and helping others. They take pride in educating people in the realm of real estate investing opportunities. With a shared love for traveling and the outdoors, their greatest love is their family. Spending time with their kids and grandkids stands above everything else. They’re so honored to watch the next generations of their family grow and continue their legacy.
Share a little about what led to starting SVSM Capital?
After being in corporate America for three decades Suzan and I realized we wanted to make a difference in our future. We needed to take total control of our lives and that meant breaking away from the pack and creating our own path. We had picked up some rental properties over the years, but we weren’t happy with the results. We knew we could build the future we dreamed about, but at that point, knew we needed to get more educated.
To date we have been full-time real estate investors for 12 years and have never looked back. With all the real estate deals we’ve done (over 900 rehabs and flips, 75 rentals, and owner financed properties) we have always raised private money to fund our deals. We didn't go the conventional route of using bank money. By doing so, we have built wonderful relationships, and created great systems in the process. Being on the buyer’s side of the deals for many years helped us understand the importance of taking care of our investors. Over the years, as we've grown, it has allowed us to expand and create new ways to keep our investors’ money working.
Tell us what you offer at SVSM Capital?
We created SVSM Capital because we found a better way to keep our investors’ money working 24/7/365. As we have gotten older, we realized the importance of keeping our money working, not us. We keep your money working consistently with a little higher rate of return than most conventional investments. We've learned by staying away from Wall Street we have less volatility. SVSM Growth Fund works in ‘Main Street’. Our fund is backed by investor mortgage notes that we create, along with our managers and partners. By creating our own mortgage notes and following our strict criteria, we put ourselves in a very strong position with our borrowers. This, along with giving our investors a consistent above average return range, has built great confidence in the SVSM Growth Fund and our investors.
What do you recommend for someone who is looking to get started investing?
The first thing to think about is your short term investing goals versus your long term investing goals. Short term investing goals could be wanting to buy a house, send your kids to private school, and planning to send your kids to college. Long term investing goals are things like wanting to save for retirement, traveling, or planning to take care of aging parents or a loved one.
Also, educate yourself on the type of investments you want to be in. Do your homework, and don’t just rely on what someone tells you. There is always some risk when you invest your money however, the better educated you are on the investment, the better decisions you will make.
Do your due diligence on the operator’s of the investment. What is their track record with past investors they have worked with?
Ask yourself if you’re a high risk or a low risk person. Always remember the higher the interest rate you get the higher the risk of the investment. When we are young we tend to take higher risk in investments as we get older it is more important to put our money in safer investments and hang on to our money.
What is different about SVSM Capital?
We are an open book with all of our investors. We start by educating our investors before we ever let them invest in our fund. We work with investors who use their self-directed IRA or 401k, along with those who use cash. Suzan and I also participate in our fund. We are very happy and confident in our fund–after all, how could I tell anyone to invest in our fund if we are not willing to invest alongside you!