Building a (small) bank to fund your real estate acquisitions

[Austin Fowler]

Dear all,

When most people think about the task of opening a bank, they think of startup costs that can run into the millions and minimum capital requirements that start in the tens of millions. For an entity with FDIC backing, this is more or less the case.

But what if you would like to open a small bank where your own personal income, and your personal and business assets, and your integrity of operation are what ensures your clients are safe? Where you deploy capital into real estate and educate your account holders every step of the way. Where in the course of normal operation you educate your clients how to follow in your footsteps and open their own small bank one day. What would that cost? What if you just wanted to try this out without fully committing, what about the cost of just doing that?

Well, over the last 20+ years I've put a lot of work into answering the above questions. If you want to try raising capital bank-style to fund your real estate, you'll need an LLC and a business banking account with ACH collections. Not free, but that is all. You are restricted to trying things with your closest friends and family only. No advertising of any kind.

If you want to get fully set up so you can talk to anyone and advertise openly, that will set you back $15k in legal fees. None of this money goes to me, all of it to a securities lawyer ready to help you. You can test the model for years before making this transition provided you test within your inner circle and don't advertise.

How hard is this to do? 5 simple steps to get to test stage, and 2 two more to get to fully legal stage. If you wanted, you could easily complete all of the steps in a month. I'm not personally charging anything for anything. We all win when we share our knowledge and experience. We all grow together.

If this is of interest to you, please head to https://groups.google.com/g/stairway-fundraising and read through the 7 steps. They total less than 3 pages :-)

Join the group and let's go!

Best,

Austin.