Lian Orraco recalled the reaction he received about coming to Baltimore.
“The way that I arrived in Maryland was originally, I arrived to work in Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Lab,” recalled Orraco. “At the time, I was living in Howard County. A lot of people told me something that you cannot tell me. They said, ‘Don’t go to Baltimore.’ So now I was curious.”
He continued, “I ended up loving Baltimore. I see a lot of potential, I see a lot of good people, and I see a lot of opportunity in the city. So, I started getting good tenants and fixing up places. Obviously, we are very focused on getting returns to the investors, but we’re also very focused on what we are doing socially. We aren’t here to ruin people’s lives. We really want to provide a safe and healthy place for people to live.”
Orraco is the co-founder and managing director of Nexo Group, a real estate development and investment management company with offices in Baltimore and Puerto Rico. Orraco, who is a native of Puerto Rico, founded the company along with architect Carlos Martinez.
“After we went to school, we decided to get together and really start working on real estate,” said Orraco. “We had some good deals and started scaling up. Part of the scaling up process has been our relationship with RPIP.”
Real Property Investment Partners (RPIP) was formed in 2020 with the goal of providing financing to local entrepreneurs who are looking to improve their neighborhoods throughout Baltimore City and its surrounding counties.
“Lian was entering the real estate market and he came to us for a loan,” recalled RPIP’s CEO, Tibor Wilheim. “He was looking to take over a property that was in foreclosure from some operators who treated their tenants badly and mismanaged the property. With our financial help, he was able to turn over the 26-unit property and help revitalize the community.”
He added, “The mission and vision of RPIP is to assist local community members in real estate with the goal of furthering their investments and projects to help them succeed in an environment where it’s harder to get conventional financing. So many of our borrowers can’t go to their local bank to get a loan, because the banks aren’t interested in a row home in Baltimore City that doesn’t have a roof on it.”
With a focus on Fix-N-Flip and residential bridge loans, Wilheim said RPIP allows investors to fund deals at competitive terms while allowing them to close the transaction in a fraction of the time.
“With our underwriting and internal team, we are able to assist investors who have their boots on the ground,” said Wilheim. “Our success is helping to assist real estate investors to build up communities by giving them the capabilities to do so through needed financial means and other support to be successful.”
In addition to Wilheim, the youthful group also includes COO Joseph Cohen; Ari Schaffel, CTO (Chief Technology Officer); Abraham Nash, Senior Financial Analyst; and Lady Adan, Operational Support.
“There’s always a lot of this talk about people investing in Baltimore real estate being from outside neighborhoods and calling them slumlords,” said Wilheim. “But what makes a lot of our borrowers special is that they really put their tenants first and they understand their tenants. They show up at the properties and the tenants are able to speak to them. That helps to negate the dysfunction we have seen in the past which involves the many layers that have existed between the owner of a property and the tenant. That’s a win-win for everybody.”
Baltimore-based 3V Development Group, which purchases properties in Baltimore with the goal of revitalizing neighborhoods one house at a time, is working on its second property thanks to a loan from RPIP.
“I’m really thankful for RPIP for giving us a chance on our first investment purchase,” said co-founder Vashtied Parrish. “We were initially turned down by another lender, but Tibor gave us a shot. Thanks to Tibor, we were able to purchase the property we wanted in the timeframe we needed. We were also able to renovate the property, sell the property, and raise the property value in the neighborhood.”
Vashtied Brown is also a co-founder of 3V Development Group.
“We were also able to sell the property to a first-time homeowner,” said Brown. ”Seeing the look on the new homeowner’s face was priceless.”
Carol Williams is among the company’s investors.
“The best part about our first investment was the smile on the young lady’s face when she was handed the keys to her first house,” said Williams. “She was so excited. I knew this was something I wanted to continue to do. Tibor and his group are providing an excellent platform for helping to turn around housing blight in Baltimore.”
For more information about RPIP, call (513) 582-4546 or visit https://rpiplending.com.