JF 4120: Bigger Checks, Better Terms and Less Stress ft. Maria Zondervan

The Best Ever CRE Show

Best Ever CRE

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 996 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Richard McGirr interviews Maria Zondervan, a fund-of-funds operator who pivoted from a career as an endangered-species wildlife biologist into multifamily investing after realizing she needed to build legacy wealth for her special-needs son. Maria explains why she disliked directly operating multifamily and instead built a model where she partners with other fund managers to write larger checks, negotiate better tiers/terms, and put more “eyes on the deal” during due diligence. She also breaks down how her group manages risk and investor expectations—doing fewer, higher-quality equity deals and leaning on an income fund for liquidity—plus how she qualifies investors to avoid placing “all their savings” into illiquid syndications. Finally, Maria shares her investor lead-gen approach: primarily in-person education and speaking, with social media used mostly to stay top-of-mind rather than as a primary acquisition channel. Maria ZondervanCurrent role: CEO, Blue Vikings CapitalBased in: Orlando, FloridaSay hi to them at: https://www.bluevikingscapital.com/ | https://linktr.ee/bluevikingscapital Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com with code BESTEVER Visit bestevercrypto.com today to get started and earn up to $2,500 in bonus crypto. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/ Join the Best Ever Community The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria. Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:23.6	HelloVet.
0:27.0	This episode is brought to you by Vanta.
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0:56.3	Hey, best ever listeners. Welcome back to Unlimited Capital on the Best Ever CRE Network.
1:01.9	Today I have a great interview with Maria Zondervan, who is an extremely accomplished fund of funds manager like myself.
1:08.9	So this is a really great show because she's placed over
1:12.4	$8 million of capital, which is far above what most FAAF managers have been able to accomplish.
1:18.7	Now, I'm not going to say you're never going to accomplish that. You're all going to get there
1:21.0	someday. But being able to hear from someone who has gone all the way through the journey,
1:27.4	place that as much capital, taking the way through the journey, placed that's
1:28.2	much capital, taking the hits, you know, figured out what's working. It's just an incredible
	...

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