We’re joined today by a visionary who has carved out a powerful lane in the private-equity real estate world. August Biniaz, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of CPI Capital, has spent more than 15 years transforming underperforming properties into thriving multifamily communities—while opening the doors for everyday investors to participate in institutional-grade opportunities.
August’s background is uniquely multidimensional. He blends hands-on development experience as a licensed builder with strategic leadership in acquisitions, operations, and investor relations. From constructing homes to helping lead more than $200 million in U.S. multifamily acquisitions, his career illustrates what becomes possible when focus, transparency, and disciplined execution align.
In this conversation, August breaks down how scalable wealth is built through multifamily value-add strategies, why specialists consistently outperform generalists, and what investors must understand about today’s evolving real-estate landscape. Whether you’re an experienced operator, a passive investor, or simply someone working to demystify the world of syndications, this episode will sharpen your perspective and expand your toolkit.
Episode Highlights Here:
Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I want to invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward scale to billions and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support. It’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It meansthe world to me. Welcome to the build to billions podcast, also streaming on capital gains tax solutions,podcast where we guide successful entrepreneurs and investors on their way from scaling from millionsto billions. And we believe the key to scaling and compounding your wealth and life starts every singleday with a mindset and practice of stewardship over ownership and applying billionaire biblicalprinciples. Our ultimate goal is to help you scale and compound your wealth and life so you can give more all but a way to help. MVPs, my name is Brett Swarts, and each and every episode, we are joined by some of the best billionaires, millionaires and entrepreneurs, where they share their stories and secrets with us so we can level up, and today is going to be no exception. I’m excited about our guest. He’s from Canada and Florida, and he is the co-founder and chief investment officer of CPI capital, which is a private real estate equity firm, and its mandate is to acquire multifamily assets utilizing the value-add value add Bruns while partnering with passive investors, value add business model by partnering with passive investors as limited partners. And he’s been instrumental in closing over two or$8 million in multifamily assets since inception and so much more. He’s also the host of real estate investing demystified podcast. Please welcome the show with me. August Beni as August, how you doing?
August
Good man. Thanks for having me
Brett
Absolutely good to see you here, and for our listeners, get tonight for the first time, would you give us just a little bit more about your story and your focus?
August
Yeah, absolutely. My story. I’m, as you mentioned, the chief investment officer with CPIcapital. The co-founder, really been in real estate most of my career. Started out as a real estate agent many, many years ago, always wanted to scale and started building single family homes at some point. At this point as well in my career, I was building both custom and spec homes. And again, always wanted to scale and realized there was a way to put together funds and syndications and raise money. Also looked around kind of my space in West Coast of Canada and Vancouver realized the yields were just not there, the returns were just not there, and we were at the mercy of foreign investors and other factors, and really restrictive rent control laws and other not very builder and investor friendly laws. Sook across the border and realize that we might have a somewhat of a monopoly to be able to allow Canadian investors to have exposure to us real estate. And that was really the spawn of CO founding CPI with a couple of great partners. And that’s where we’re at today,
Brett
Fantastic. And today we’re gonna be talking about just the, you know, passive real estate world that we’re in right now. And what we’re seeing, we’re gonna come with some build to rent, and just, kind of, the kind of the overall strategy that you’re looking at for 2025 you know, I’m coining 2025 the year of the tap out August, right? And if you do Jiu Jitsu, at a certain point, you got to tap out, right? Meaning, like, your debt is reset. It’, it’s, it’s, it’s actually just, you know, pouring into the boat, and the boat’s coming out, and so those that, unfortunately, maybe bought a little bit too aggressive, and the debt and the insurance and all those things, so the year in the tap out, this is finally like they’re just giving up and giving back to the bank. But, I mean, what’s your sense on that? Do you feel like this year’s the year at the tap out?
August
Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. I think if real estate was a clock and 12 o’clock is top of the market. I think we’re really at six o’clock. And one of those reasons is because those debt maturities and the extend and pretend can’t really be done anymore, particularly in the commercial real estate space. Therates now have been kept at where they are on five, 5.25 for a while, for a couple of years now, theywere rapidly increased by the Fed to fight inflation, which was caused as a result of covid and that postcovid money printing that took place lot of syndicators or funds and investors, this is on the institutionallevel. Even some of the Wall Street firms also got themselves in trouble. Blackstone gave the keys back on a property in Las Vegas, back to the banks as well. So it happens on every level, but it really started post GFC. Post GFC, when subprime mortgage crisis resulted in the US economy going into a full-blown recession. That’s why it’s called the great financial crisis. The rates were brought down to near zero. There’s a Fed’s funds rate. So, there was a lot of cheap money out there, and a lot of groups got used to putting on cheap debt, on deals and buying properties pennies on the dollar, and really went on a bull run from 2011 and the reason I say 2011 not 2008 because the bottom the market was really2011 not 2008
Brett
because, so if you like, this little, short clip of the interview I just did, because. Go over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody.
Watch the episode here:
Important Links:
About August Biniaz
August Biniaz is the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of CPI Capital, a real estate private-equity firm specializing in U.S. multifamily value-add acquisitions. With a 15-year background as a real-estate entrepreneur, licensed builder, developer, and general contractor, August brings deep operational expertise to every stage of the investment lifecycle—from construction to acquisition to asset management.
At CPI Capital, he has helped lead the firm’s growth to more than $200–$225 million in U.S. multifamily assets under management, serving both Canadian and international investors seeking secure, scalable, and tax-efficient real estate opportunities.
August is also a highly respected educator and thought leader. He co-hosts the Real Estate Investing Demystified podcast, speaks at industry events, and consistently advocates for clarity, transparency, and investor-first communication in real estate private equity. His mission is simple: to demystify multifamily investing and empower everyday investors to participate in wealth-building opportunities that were once accessible only to institutions.
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
- capitalgainstaxsolutions.com
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Facebook
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Twitter
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Tiktok