Street Smart Success

When you operate in the market where you live, it reduces a tremendous amount of risk. It takes years to develop relationships and the historical perspective to have a block-by-block familiarity that stacks the deck in your favor. This intimate knowledge enables you to more easily find deals across asset types and identify great local partners to ensure success. Tyler Cauble, Founder of the Cauble...

There tends to be a prevailing focus on markets with growing population and job growth as the places to invest. While this makes obvious sense, these markets are much harder to identify discounted opportunities and often promise lower returns. That’s why smaller, older markets with less competition sometimes offer better returns, especially when you have an operator that specializes in the market....

Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger invest on the basis of value, not the economy. Good investing, versus speculating, should be boring, like watching paint dry. You want to protect your capital and get appreciation as a bonus. Chasing unrealistically high returns can cost a lot of money and create a lot of pain. Paul Moore, Managing Partner of Wellings Capital, has an impressive track record in inve...

In the past several years, it got increasingly difficult to find the right deals in Real Estate, especially Multifamily. People were just paying too much across the board. In the past several months, however, the market has turned significantly with far less competition and many more distressed sellers, especially with C class properties. Amy Rubenstein, CEO of Clear Investment Group, has an incre...

As an entrepreneur, it often takes a lot of attempts at different things before you find your niche and path to riches. Some key characteristics of many entrepreneurs are the ability to learn from mistakes and the fortitude to bounce back from failures that sometimes cost a lot of money. Peter Vekselman, Real Estate investor and Coach, has done several different things including being a top Amway...

Even though you can buy and operate properties on your own, it can be time consuming and a hassle. Partnering with syndicators in larger deals, however, can generate better returns without the headaches and stresses of managing property. There are quality syndicators that have years of experience in specialized asset classes and markets, and a track record of generating consistently high investor...

Most new businesses fail within their first five years. That’s why, if you’re considering going into business, investing in a franchise can be the best way to go. Investing in a successful franchise mitigates a lot of risk by aligning yourself with a proven concept and a leadership team that teaches you the operational components of the business and how to become successful. Kim Daly, a franchise...

Although most asset classes in Real Estate have become saturated, smaller industrial is still wide open with market inefficiencies and fewer investors pursuing it. There are great deals on properties priced under $20,000,000 with credit tenants, in supply constrained markets, and under the radar of larger institutions. Lance Pederson and his partners at Resonance Capital are acquiring solid B clas...

When it comes to making money, flexibility is a key ingredient because things are always changing and fluid. Right now, despite signs of huge distress, rising interest rates, and economic volatility, prices for most Real Estate assets are still priced too high for experienced, disciplined investors to pay. As a result, there’s a lot of dry powder in the market, especially with smart intuitions and...

Many Real Estate investors who start out in residential properties gravitate to commercial asset classes like office, industrial or self-storage. With these asset classes, you have fewer interactions with tenants because they don’t live in the properties with all the drama that this can entail. Jonathan Hayek, founder of Endurance Properties in Cheyenne, Wyoming, started with single family houses...

In order to generate great returns in a saturated market, identifying an asset class with a high barrier to entry can be necessary. Affordable Housing, in particular, can be a challenge because of steep municipal regulatory hurdles and compliance issues that make acquisitions and operations complex and difficult. As a result, few investors have the bandwidth that it takes to operate these properti...

In an environment where it’s difficult to achieve significant cash flow with direct equity investments in Real Estate, investing in the debt can be an attractive option.  Investing in debt usually has less risk and can generate yields as high as 9%-11%, and sometimes even higher, with the assets as collateral. Carrie Cook, President of Ignite Funding, makes investing in Real Estate available to pe...

In any business, economies of scale result in more efficiency and profitability. Multifamily investing is no different. Instead of operating in multiple markets and managing several different management companies, you can streamline your efforts while reducing risk and generating better returns by focusing just one of a select few markets. Having a presence in fewer markets can also make acquisiti...

There are many ways to invest in Real Estate successfully, but one often overlooked vehicle is publicly traded REITs. Publicly traded REITs are funds comprised of public Real Estate companies, many focused on one asset class. Whether it’s a Multifamily fund, Cell Towers, Cannabis, Mobile Home Parks, Self-Storage or others, the world of REITs has grown dramatically over the past several years. By i...

Getting a high yield on cash flowing residential property has gotten harder, even in secondary and tertiary markets. Even with interest rates climbing over the past year, which makes properties hard to cash flow, sellers have not lowered expectations for what they think their properties are worth. As a result of this and a tighter lending environment, sales volume of commercial properties has cont...

Wealth Channel is a media company that connects accredited investors to proven sponsors of Alternative Investments. Wealth Channel provides valuable content on the exploding world of alternatives for people who are looking for better returns than the stock market with less volatility. Scott Hawksworth, Chief Marketing Officer, is responsible for expanding the community and creating great opportuni...

Every fortune 500 company plus thousands of others place employees in corporate housing. From a landlord perspective, the rents that are paid for these properties vastly exceed long-term rentals and have less wear and tear. Angela Healy, CEO and owner of Avenue West Managed Corporate Housing, places corporate employees in fully furnished residential condos and manages the whole process for the own...

Both residential and commercial occupancy rates and rents are contracting in many places and the government remains committed to taming inflation. Additionally, taxes, insurance, and other expenses are increasing. For operators with loans coming due over the next couple years, the combination of less revenue and increased operating and borrowing costs, may make refinancing nearly impossible. As a...

With so much disruption in the capital markets, lending today has gotten increasingly complex and difficult to navigate. In order to be successful in the current environment, sponsors need to be more resourceful and creative than at any other time in recent history to get deals funded. In the near term, a lot of distress in the market will provide great opportunities for operators and investors. A...

The key to success in any Real Estate venture is conservative underwriting. In a super competitive environment, it’s easy to convince yourself to believe unrealistic assumptions in order to bid high enough to win a deal. This can cause major heartache when surprises occur, and the market doesn’t fully cooperate. Zamir Kazi, founder of ZMR Capital, has acquired 33 large multifamily properties over...

There’s a need for 7 million more affordable apartment units in the country, but the cost of new construction is so high that it’s hard to build new apartments and rent them out at affordable rents. That’s why municipalities provide tax credits to builders so they can bring these units to market at rents tenants can afford. Lee Harris is President and CEO of Cohen Esrey, a 50 plus year old company...

In multifamily apartments, you’re dealing with a lot of people, so a lot of things can happen every day. That’s why property management is the key to being successful, and no one cares about your baby as much as you do. When you’re acquiring properties in different markets with different property management companies, asset management can become especially difficult.  In the value-add space, you a...

Even though interest rates have risen dramatically over the past year, most apartment owners have not adjusted their expectations downwards when it comes to lowering the prices of their assets. This delta in the bid-ask of prices has contributed to a 50%-70% slow-down of transactions over the past several months. Lending standards have also gotten more onerous, so it’s making it more difficult to...

With most existing multifamily properties still priced too high to generate decent cash flow, many operators are turning to ground up development to generate more attractive returns. When these projects go according to plan, investors can get all of their money back or even more upon permanent financing, and achieve an infinite return thereafter. Sam Bates, Founder of Bates Capital Group, has tran...

By ruthlessly managing expenses, you can make C Class properties profitable, but there are ongoing challenges and risks. Even after you’ve stabilized the properties, there are continual maintenance issues and expenses you can’t accurately predict. Issues with outdated plumbing and electrical systems plus other issues erode net operating income. In addition, the possibility of further inflation and...