Industry Spotlight: Ruben Izgelov & Moses Suleymanov

Industry Spotlight:

Ruben Izgelov, Founder/CEO & Moses Suleymanov, Co-Founder/COO

We Lend, LLC

Moses Suleymanov and Ruben Izgelov, We Lend, LLC

Long before graduating from St. Johns University and the Touro School of Law, Ruben Izgelov was a flyer boy. Although he began this job when he was eight years old, he took that work ethic with him to St. Johns and Touro, where he earned a BS in legal studies and his JD, finishing cum laude and magna cum laude respectively. While he was in college and law school he worked full-time; afterwards, and on the heels of over a decade in the real estate space, Ruben founded We Lend, LLC. During his tenure in the real estate field, Izgelov focused on the fix and flip arena, or acquiring, flipping, developing, and selling over $100 million in real estate. To Ruben, the most successful time in his career was during the 2009 financial crisis; during this time, he bought, fixed, and sold distressed properties, which showed his determination in bullish and bearish markets. Ruben got married while in law school, and has two children.

Moses Suleymanov is no stranger to the value of a hard day’s work. Graduating from St. Johns University in 2016 cum laude, Suleymanov, a licensed real estate agent, has been working since he was 12 years old. In addition to his real estate license, Moses has nearly a decade of experience in the field with an emphasis on the ‘fix and flip’ arena. Even though Suleymanov is still looking towards the rest of his career, he has already acquired, flipped, developed, and sold over $100 million in real estate.

Originate Report: How have you seen We Lend grow and expand in the last year? We Lend, LLC: We have seen We Lend grow from a two-man operation to a 22-person operation, all under a one-year span. When we first started, we were mainly dealing with first time investors. Now most of our business comes from active investors, real estate offices and various referral sources. We contribute this expansion to all the experience we gained while in the fix and flip space (from which our borrowers are reaping the benefits), and to our committed staff.

Originate Report: What has been one of your biggest successes and one of your biggest failures in your career? We Lend, LLC: Many say that doing business with family is inadvisable. We disagree. Our biggest success is keeping our family in the business, and those who are not blood related are treated as family. Our biggest failure was not understanding the power of leverage when we entered the fix and flip space many years back - we’ve learned from that mistake all too well.

Originate Report: How has your company vision evolved from Day 1 to Today? We Lend, LLC: As our company continues to grow, we learn new things – many of which are voids in the industry. There are many entrepreneurs who are ready to enter the fix and flip space, but have little knowledge of the business; they also have difficulty sourcing good fix and flips. Many of our existing borrowers, despite having experience, run into the same problem – they struggle with finding enough deals. Considering our background and experience in the fix and flip space, we have hands-on knowledge of how to source new fix and flip deals. Our vision has evolved to assist new and existing borrowers in sourcing sensible fix and flip deals – we truly believe that adding value to our borrowers is essential.

Originate Report: What are some of your goals for 2019? We Lend, LLC: Our goal for 2019 is to introduce programs that are creative enough to make a small difference to our bottom-line, but a huge savings for the borrower. We also have our eyes set on moving into other states and becoming as active as we are in NYC.

Originate Report: What is something that most people don’t know about your company? We Lend, LLC: Most people do not know that we were in the fix and flip space for many years prior to starting We Lend. That experience allows us to better serve our borrowers by helping them understand the business and source new fix and flip deals. Also, every phone number that you see associated to us is a cell phone. What that means is that someone is always answering the borrower’s call - day or night, weekday or weekend, We Lend and We Answer.

Originate Report: What does success look like for you? We Lend, LLC: Success to us is creating a business that will serve generations to come. We are here for the long run.

Originate Report: What is one piece of advice you have learned and carried with you throughout your life? We Lend, LLC: We were fortunate enough to start working at very young ages. That allowed us to learn many lessons. Putting all these lessons into perspective, we can say in full confidence that hard work with a combination of complete honesty, a bit of luck, and respect to everyone (regardless of their status) will always pay off. And one more thing: there is no such thing as overnight success in business.

Originate Report: What mistakes have you seen others make in this industry? How does We Lend avoid making those same mistakes? We Lend, LLC: Some hard money lenders cannot compete with our terms, so they tell their borrowers that they can match or beat what we offer and then change the terms the day of the closing – yes, the borrower still closes with that lender, but they will never send them any business. This type of behavior also brings a bad reputation to the industry. We only offer terms that we know we will fund – we look at everything with longevity – and we are here to stay.

CONTACT: 212-777-7780 | ruben@welendny.com | moses@welendny.com | www.welendny.com