Street Smart Success

In the past decade, Credit Unions have become more mainstream and a common source of commercial lending. As consolidation in the banking industry as depleted the number of community banks, Credit Unions have been filling the breach. Credit Unions are non-profit entities owned by their customers, or “members.” They’re easy and flexible to work with and often have lower fees and lower borrowing rate...

Getting the right price and the right terms is the ultimate hedge against the inevitable unknowns and challenges of operating multifamily properties. Class C properties, in particular, can present great buying opportunities, but they have a lot of day-to-day operational challenges, from collecting rents to perpetual maintenance issues. Steven Weinstock, co-founder of WE Capital in Brooklyn, operat...

50% of multifamily property management fees are generated through maintenance work. Property management firms markup maintenance as high as 50%, and don’t provide clients itemized expenses. Some companies even charge vacancy fees. They make money on revenue, not on reducing expenses. Brian Levredge, President of Pinnacle Asset Management, manages his own properties in Chattanooga and surrounding a...

Despite headwinds that have buffeted the multifamily industry over the last couple years, certain markets have continued to flourish. New England, for example, has continued to excel because there’s been an influx of new residents and limited new construction. As Boston rents have become the second highest in the nation behind New York, it’s pushed many of these renters to move to Southern New Ham...

As passion for sports persists, the sports industry has shown major growth over the past several decades. It’s not just the teams, it’s the entire industry and ecosystem that supports them. Whether it’s food and beverage, merchandising, broadcasting and media, or even sports betting, sports are booming. In addition to the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL, sports like soccer and women’s sports are growing ra...

As banks have become more regulated since 2008, and more risk averse because of economic uncertainty, the private lending market has grown tremendously in recent years. Whether it’s Real Estate operators who need to come up with more money to refinance their loans, or smaller private companies who need funding to grow their businesses, Private Credit is growing dramatically to fill these roles. Je...

Starting in 2012, Blackrock started investing in single family homes. This was on the heels of the great financial crises when newer homes in Phoenix and other sunbelt markets were selling for $60,000-$70,000. Since then, other institutions have also entered the space, and single-family homes has become an institutional asset class. Kris Garin, Principal and CEO of Riparian Capital Partners is agg...

Wealth Management professionals typically recommend clients invest 70-80% of their portfolios in traditional vehicles such as stocks, bonds and commodities. Although traditional investments are great long-term wealth-building vehicles, alternatives assets also perform well and serve different purposes. They can generate consistent cash flow as high as 10%, with attractive tax advantages and achiev...

There are no shortcuts to succeeding in business, there’s no way to avoid doing the hard work and putting the time in. The key is to persevere and stay in the game long enough to succeed. The longer you persist, the easier things become as you improve your skills and refine your focus, direction, and niche.  A.J. Lawrence, entrepreneur, investor, and founder of businesses, advises companies across...

There are different strategies for scaling a Real Estate portfolio. You can raise money from friends and family, you can syndicate deals from accredited investors, or you can create funds with multiple assets. Instead of these options, Nate Reichard, Chairman, CEO, and Founder of Reichard Capital, is starting a private REIT. A REIT provides more efficient access to capital and therefore an enhance...

Industrial properties were at 80% occupancy and selling at 5 cap rates pre-pandemic. Now they’re over 90% occupancy and selling at 8.5% cap rates. With interest rates most likely coming down, this represents a great opportunity to invest in industrial. Warren Buffet says never bet against America, now is a great time to invest in industrial properties. Judd Dunning, President of DWG Capital Partne...

David Saxe is Co-founder and Managing Principal at Calvera Partners.  His company started out by buying small value-add multifamily properties in the San Francisco Bay Area and has grown to acquiring larger properties in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Raleigh-Durham. Calvera invests in markets with strong health care and technology industries, often in places to which Californians are relocating. H...

With so many multifamily syndicators having executed value-add business plans over the past several years, there are fewer of these properties available for acquisition.  Additionally, older properties have more deferred maintenance, and therefore are more difficult to underwrite. Most of the time, even with lower prices, the risk is not worth the reward with older properties, and newer properties...

Over the past several years, it’s been difficult to generate cash flow investing in commercial Real Estate equity. There’s been too much investor demand driving the prices up and the returns down. Investing in debt, however, presents opportunities for strong cash flow with lower risk. As bank lending has gotten less accessible over the past couple years, borrowers have been forced to seek out othe...

Acquiring quality multifamily assets has gotten increasingly competitive over the last several years. This is one of the reasons it’s become more profitable to build communities from the ground up. Whereas the economics are enticing, however, there’s commensurate risk. There’s interest rate risk with floating construction loans, there’s construction cost risks with the move in material prices and...

The commercial real estate market has seen more activity over the past few months as a result of pent-up demand and optimism that interest rates will decline. Many institutions, Private Equity firms, and other investors have lots of dry powder and are eager to deploy capital. As large Retail and Office have fallen out of favor over the past five years, an insatiable demand for stable industrial an...

Investing into smaller, consistently profitable, old economy businesses is a great way to generate cash flow and diversify risk. Business-to-business companies with reliable, steady client bases can generate consistent returns. Compared to most other asset classes, including commercial real estate, you can buy these companies at very low multiples of free cash flow with much higher debt service co...

It’s impossible to time the market, so it makes sense to buy at the right price relative to current markets. If you don’t stay active, you can miss out on great opportunities. It also makes sense to hold for long periods of time, because five years or less is often not enough time to expect precise execution of a business plan given the vagaries that are entailed. Peter Linneman, Principal of Linn...

For steady, predictable cash flow, few assets perform as well as Flex Industrial. There’s a dearth of supply where tenants can operate their businesses, and the cost of relocating is often prohibitive. There’s also little day-to-day management because the spaces are mostly warehouses with a minor office component. Ian Horowitz, Managing Partner at Equity Warehouse, owns 15 properties in the Southe...

Nothing negatively impacts apartment performance metrics like vacancies. That’s why it pays to take great care of tenants, and to have precise systems and processes to replace tenants when prior ones leave. Many apartment operators take up to 60 days to fill a vacancy. Jered Sturm, CEO of SNS Capitol Group, however, has a meticulously refined process that takes three days to fill vacancies from th...

Over 90% of U.S. businesses generate less than $5 million profit per year, yet these businesses are the backbone of our economy and employ the majority of U.S. employees. Whereas the majority of Private Equity investments are in larger companies, many smaller companies are investable and need access to capital and additional expertise to grow. Mason Myers, Founder of Greybull Stewardship, invests...

Running multifamily properties in tertiary markets can have major challenges, especially finding qualified staff and drawing from a smaller tenant base. Despite these challenges, you can still acquire at a low enough basis where big gains can be made. Many of these properties are inefficiently managed by long-term local owners with little or no debt and rents hundreds of dollars per month below ma...

As investors tire of stock market volatility, and market awareness for private investments increases, allocations are increasing for non-traditional assets. In the past decade, and even more recently, retail investors have increasingly invested more money into privately held Real Estate, Private Credit, and Private Equity. With the right investment strategies, there’s predictable cash flow and lim...

The affordable housing issue persists in this country as homeownership becomes further out of reach for most people. One of the most viable solutions to this issue is manufactured homes, or Mobile Home Parks. They can be great cash flowing assets, but there’s a lot to know to be able to manage them effectively. Daniel Weisfield, co-founder of Three Pillar Communities, has built a portfolio of 70 c...

As the cost of acquiring existing multifamily assets has escalated over the past decade, it’s been more lucrative to construct these projects from the ground up. Although borrowing and material costs have gone up over the past couple years, ground up construction has historically rewarded investors with higher returns than acquiring existing assets. AJ Klenk, Managing Partner of Catalyst Capital P...