What we’re about
Welcome to GRID!
GRID LA Investor Club is a real estate community built by investors for investors. We are a group of real people doing real deals.
Our core mission is to connect to, learn from, and collaborate with like-minded people interested in building wealth and creating impact through real estate.
We welcome investors of all experience levels. We are life-long learners and believe everyone has value to share.
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How it works
We meet once a month, 12 months a year, on the same day, week, and time of the month. Each month we cover a different investing topic in the Lifecycle of an Investor—ranging from wholesaling to rehabbing to becoming a bank through private lending.
Our meetings are not sales pitches. They are opportunities for us to dive deep into a real estate topic, connect with local experts in our marketplace, and build long-term relationships with other doers and deal-makers.
All of our events are 100% FREE.
Learn more about us at gridinvestor.com
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Join the GRID Facebook Community online 5K+
https://www.facebook.com/groups/gridinvestor
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Watch all GRID event playback on YouTube
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Your GRID Leadership
GRID LA Investor Club is led by Nicholas Despotidis and Jason Malabute
About Nick
Nick is a Realtor in Los Angeles with the Borges Real Estate Team, where he assists over 50 clients annually and manages $40 million in production. Licensed in California, Maryland, Virginia, and DC, he specializes in serving investors, developers, first-time homebuyers, move-up buyers, and sellers.
Recognized as a top 1.5% Realtor in the nation for five consecutive years, Nick holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University. His diverse professional background includes positions at PNC Bank, Citi Bank, and the FDIC in regulatory and oversight roles.
As a third-generation investor, Nick continues the legacy started by his great-grandfather in New York in multi-unit investments. He is also an active real estate investor and leads a local investor community GRID LA.
Originally from New Jersey, Nick enjoys spending his leisure time playing basketball, caring for his lawn and playing with his daughters, Anya and Talia.
Referrals are highly appreciated. If you know someone interested in purchasing or listing a home, please email Nick at ndespotidis@kw.com to arrange a free consultation. He is dedicated to helping clients achieve their financial and real estate goals.
About Jason
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jason Malabute, an MBA, is a seasoned Real Estate Investor, an active Philanthropist, and a CPA (Certified Public Accountant).
Despite being born with a condition called Cerebral Palsy that affects speech and muscle movement, Jason Malabute never took it as an excuse. Instead, he used his disability as motivation. When asked about his motivation, he said, “I want to be a role model to kids with disabilities and kids from low-income neighbourhoods of what is possible.”
Jason Malabute started his real estate journey in 2018 and studied real estate for 1 whole year before finally investing in three rentals in the first year of 2019, in Indianapolis. After successfully following the investment strategy called BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat) for multiple properties, Mr Malabute took the leap from single-family to multifamily investing under the mentorship of Sterling White. Sterling White is the founder of Sonders Investment Group and is involved with both buying and selling over 100 single-family homes. Mr White has recently scaled his portfolio to just under 500 multi-family apartment units.
Following the footsteps of Sterling White, today, Jason Malabute is the proud owner of Malabute Properties LLC and has recently exited out from all the single-family homes in 2021. He has now totally submerged into the multifamily investing in Indianapolis and Kansas City areas, where his prime interest remains in acquiring 6-30 unit apartment buildings.
While talking about his favourite books, Jason Malabute tenderly mentions “Long-Distance Real Estate Investing; How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties” by David Greene; The 10x Rule by Grant Cardone, and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. Apart from reading and learning more about real estate, Jason is highly interested in working out, travelling, attending sports events, blogging (on Bigger Pockets), and spending time with friends and family. “Sky’s the limit”, is what he truly believes in and strives to show by his work.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- How to Understand Value: Analyzing Deals in Your MarketGRID LA Investor Club, Pasadena, CA
Determining a property's value is one of the most important skills you must develop as a real estate investor.
The key to understanding real estate values is learning how they impact your deals.
Accurate real estate valuations can help investors make better decisions when it comes to buying and selling properties.
Investors must know how to value real estate and make educated guesses about how much profit each will make, whether through property appreciation, rental income, or both.
Agenda:
10 AM: Registration
10:30 AM: Guest Speaker
12 PM: NetworkingCome for the training, stay for the networking!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Join the GRID LA Investor Club Facebook Community
Join the online GRID LA Investor Club community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe. - Show Me The Money! Where To Find The Money + How To Become the BankGRID LA Investor Club, Pasadena, CA
Here’s the short version—the money is the easy part.
Find a motivated seller, get yourself a deal and the money will find you.
Come out to this important discussion to find out how to get money for your deals from lenders, private sources, friends, family, and GRID itself.
Doing deals isn’t the only way (and maybe not even the best way) to make money investing in real estate.
This event is also about how YOU can be the bank and how to properly structure loans to other investors that can provide solid, safe returns on your money—without getting your hands dirty.
Agenda:
10 AM: Registration
10:30 AM: Guest Speaker
12 PM: NetworkingCome for the training, stay for the networking!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Join the GRID LA Investor Club Facebook Community
Join the online GRID LA Investor Club community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe. - Intro to Commercial Real Estate 101: Office, Retail, Industrial, and StorageGRID LA Investor Club, Pasadena, CA
Commercial real estate can seem daunting to budding investors.
But in reality, the process of finding, analyzing, managing and maximizing a commercial property is very similar to residential rentals, you just add some zeros.
In this month's meeting, we will cover the basics of the different types of commercial real estate, including office, retail, industrial, and storage property.
Join us to learn how to add some zeros to your bank account.
Agenda:
10 AM: Registration
10:30 AM: Guest Speaker
12 PM: NetworkingCome for the training, stay for the networking!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Join the GRID LA Investor Club Facebook Community
Join the online GRID LA Investor Club community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe. - How to Estimate Renovations: Analyze Costs + Minimize MistakesGRID LA Investor Club, Pasadena, CA
This month's meeting is one of the most popular—How to Estimate Renovations.
Come out and hear us explain how we estimate renovations on our investment properties BEFORE we actually go look at them.
It's a critical skill that will save you time and make you money.
We'll talk about the types of renovation and materials we put in our properties and show examples from our deals.
Agenda:
10 AM: Registration
10:30 AM: Guest Speaker
12 PM: NetworkingCome for the training, stay for the networking!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Join the GRID LA Investor Club Facebook Community
Join the online GRID LA Investor Club community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe.
