Street Smart Success

In the past couple years, there’s been an unprecedented amount of new multifamily developments under construction. With so many construction loans coming due over the next couple years, there will be many opportunities to provide preferred equity to developers who need gap funding in order to stay alive in their deals. With interest rates having more than doubled, and lenders requiring less leverage, borrowers will need to bring more outside money to the table. Darin Davis, Co-founder and Principal of Presario Ventures, is a seasoned Texas multifamily operator, who is providing preferred equity to builders of new multifamily apartments. 

A sector of Real Estate that remains robust is outparcel developments. The demand for great locations exceeds current supply. Outparcels are attractive because they have great visibility, and they don’t compete with dozens of other tenants. Rents are typically higher, but well warranted based on traffic counts and visibility. Typical tenants are fast food, fitness chains, car washes, and gas stations. Josh Weiner, Principal of KLNB Commercial Real Estate Services, based in Northern Virginia, works with developers, investors, and owners throughout Maryland and Virginia.

For predictable and consistent cash flow, it’s hard to beat small neighborhood retail with national credit tenants. Rents are secured by some of the country’s largest corporations, and there’s very little to do to maintain these properties. Like most asset classes, it’s still highly competitive, but there are great deals in the $1 million to $5 million range that are too big for a lot of small investors, and too small for larger institutions. Loren Ziff, a three-decade, seasoned investor with experience in most asset classes, currently specializes in smaller retail properties with great cash flow. 

The best Real Estate deals often occur when someone sees what others don’t. In any market, there are always great opportunities. In today’s market, for example, there are especially great deals in suburban office. As workers have left downtown offices, they’ve chosen to work closer to home. As a result, many quality suburban office buildings are at 90% occupancy. Ash Patel, a successful Value-Add investor, invests in office buildings, flex Industrial, strip retail, and ground up construction. Ash doubles his money on most deals in three to five years. 

As equity investing in Real Estate has gotten increasingly risky, debt investing has grown rapidly in appeal. One asset class in particular that’s especially lucrative is Specialty Lending against the development of cannabis cultivation facilities. There are currently 27,000 cannabis facilities in the U.S. and the number is growing. Rob Sechrist, Co-Founding President of Pelorus Capital Group, a cannabis-use Private Mortgage REIT, has conducted $500,000,000 in transactions since 2010, which makes him one of the top three lenders in the country. Pelorus provides value-add bridge and stabilized financing to borrowers with first lien positions and has generated excellent returns for retail and institutional investors. 

When selling a home, getting the highest price is not always the number one goal for sellers. Sometimes, a seller will forgo the hassle of fixing up a home plus avoid the process of listing and showing the property. Some sellers will exchange the work involved for the certainty and speed of a close, even at a reduced price. Robbie Faithe, CEO & Founder of Faithe Real Estate Group, is a top 1% agency in Albuquerque. In addition to conducting traditional transactions for home buyers and sellers, Robbie wholesales homes to other investors. In situations when the numbers make sense, Robbie acquires homes for his own investment portfolio, often using seller financing.

Having a tight geographic focus, especially in multifamily, combined with an experienced operator, mitigates a lot of risk. There’s also no substitute for when an operator lives in the market they operate in. Local market knowledge, in addition to in-house property management, are a recipe for healthy returns. David Lamatinna, Principal at Arrowhead Properties, has over 18 years’ experience in acquiring, renovating, and managing C class apartment communities throughout greater Boston, and has generated great returns for his investors. 

One asset class that’s experiencing particularly high growth is cold storage. The increasing demand for perishable goods, the expansion of the cold supply chain, and the focus on food safety and compliance are driving the need for advanced cold storage facilities. Cliff Booth, Founder and Chairman at Westmount Realty Capital, has invested in cold storage for decades and is developing new facilities to fill this rapidly rising demand. Westmount has been a large investor in value-add warehouses and Multifamily for 35 years, mostly in the sunbelt states and upper Midwest. 

In the Multifamily asset class, being vertically integrated is especially important. Managing apartments is very labor intensive with 24-7 residents, so a lot of things can go wrong. With so many people involved, and so moving parts, expense and revenue management is a continuous challenge. Shelley Peterson, President of Kahuna Investments, owner of 3000 apartment units, has migrated from third party management companies to in-house management and is seeing increased effectiveness, significant operational savings, and profitability.

Chasing high yields that never materialize because of unrealistic underwriting is a recipe for major disappointment. The most money in Real Estate is made buying quality assets at the beginning of cycles. Currently, we’re facing an environment where inexperienced operators paid too much for properties with too much leverage, floating rate debt, and unrealistic assumptions. As a result, there will be some form of distress in almost all asset classes. Peter Lewis, Chairman and Founder of Wharton Equity Partners, has 35 years of experience as a real estate owner, developer, and operator. Peter has survived several cycles and predicts great buying opportunities over the next couple years.