The Insider's Edge To Real Estate Investing

On this week's episode, I am speaking with Will Ingraham, a partner at GDC Properties. Back in my Massey Knakal days we sold Will's company a loft conversion in Brooklyn. I have stayed in touch and have guest lectured for him at Fordham University where he teaches a class on affordable housing.

I love how Will is a big picture thinker. When I asked if his knowledge base was his Insider's Edge, he said it was quite the opposite. He said as a generalist his value is knowing who to bring into complex situations whether for entitling land or figuring out how to capitalize affordable development.

Will recounts his early days as a house painter in Manhattan, when he stumbled across a development opportunity. As he had followed real estate from an early age, he was able to assemble the site and essentially flip the contract to score a big profit launching him into the real estate business. He then went on to spec homes in Milford, NY where he ultimately met Martin Ginsburg a founder of GDC properties. They were not only the largest developer in Westchester, NY but went on to amass 3 million SF of shopping centers nationwide, as well as developing hotel projects.

Will's past roles at the company include president and chief investment officer. He has been responsible for developing and implementing the company's strategic vision, overseeing acquisitions and dispositions of property and leading new development activity. Mr. Ingraham is also managing member in the Peregrine Opportunity Zone fund. He holds a master of science degree in real estate development from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

I know you will get a lot out of this episode especially the students out there. Will's advice is to learn a hard skill so you can add value. He is also a big believer in being a problem solver.

On this week's episode, I interview my friend and client Scott Zwilling who is co-founder of Spirit Investment Partners. Scott focuses on acquisitions, equity and debt relationships, and firm wide strategy. Spirit has completed over $1 billion in transactions including 34 assets totaling 5,676 multifamily units across 11 states.

I know you will get a lot out of this interview. I am calling it the Differentiator as Scott not only talks about not following the herd when investing, but also developing your own approach. In the case of Spirit, it was investing in the Midwest when no one else was looking there. He also wanted to have the best design in their product and materials. He was certainly ahead of the curve. Scott then speaks about how to choose the right institutional partner and how to cultivate relationships. This starts with getting to know them first as opposed to just rushing into a deal. He also talks about the importance of having great deal flow, as opposed to just having a good investment pedigree.

Prior Scott was the director of northeast acquisitions for JPI, a national multi-family developer and an acquisition manager with Crescent Heights where he was responsible for over $1.0 billion of property located throughout the northeast. In addition, he served as adjunct professor of real estate finance at Columbia University. Prior to JPI and Crescent Heights, Scott was a real estate investment banker at Wells Hill Partners, Ltd., where he participated in numerous assignments, including residential, hotel and office assets and as a consultant in the real estate audit groups of Arthur Andersen and Ernst and Young. Scott is a former certified public accountant who graduated from The Ohio State University and received a Masters in Real Estate Development from Columbia University.

Lastly, Scott spoke about the importance of working with great mentors and knowing yourself! He talks about why he knew he could go off on his own and start his own investment platform. You can find out more about Scott and his company at: https://spiritinvestmentpartners.com/.

On this week's show, I interview Anthony Scandariato, co-founder of Red Knight Properties, and host of the Discovering Multifamily Podcast. I had the pleasure of speaking on his show so was happy to reciprocate. We start off the conversation by talking about how podcasts can leverage your presence in the market and help build great relationships. Maybe you'll consider starting your own podcast after listening!

Anthony graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor's degree in Applied Economics and Management . While at school, he had the entrepreneurial drive so co-founded Ridgeview Partners that sold college apparel at over 110 retailers within the first-year operations. After a year, he decided he was looking for something more permanent so learned the real estate business at Vision Properties, where he was an Acquisitions & Asset Manager VP for their nationwide Class A office assets. He later said that his experience in those markets would help him branch out to build his own nationwide portfolio.

Anthony recounts how he started with a 2 family and ultimately built up a 70 unit portfolio with his partner Brian Leonard, who played 8 years in the NFL. After they established a track record, they brought on outside investors for their first large scale acquisition of a 51 unit apartment building in Northern NJ. After selling, they have now parlayed it into a 1,000+ unit portfolio in NJ, NY, PA, FL, Ohio, and Alabama.

There are some great lessons to learn from this podcast from the importance to being hands on to keeping your investors updated on a monthly basis. He states that there may never be a perfect time to start your own portfolio, but planning is essential to hit the ground running. You can find out more about Anthony and his company at https://redknightproperties.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonymscandariato/.

For this week's show, I share with you several discussions that I had with past guests and a current team member. The focus was on how they got into and learned the business. What became apparent is there wasn't a " book" that was all encompassing to set them on their way. That being said, they all shared that there was no substitute to learning by doing and having great mentors along the way. I'm hoping for those looking to get into the business today or those looking to step up their game will find my book helpful as a foundation for their success.

Here's the background on who joined me for this compilation:

Christopher N. Okada is the Founder and President of Okada & Company. Over the past 15 years of his New York real estate career, he was able to consummate over $1B in sales, represent several Fortune 500 companies, and amass a portfolio of office, multi-family, & retail properties.

Eric Brody is founder of ANAX Real Estate Partners. He is a prolific builder and developer in NYC for the last eighteen years with over $950 million worth of real estate development and just over $500 million in total construction costs representing approximately 800 units built and occupied with in NYC. Formerly COO of Wonder Works Construction Corporation, Eric started a Proptech/Contech Venture firm in 2021 and is host of the Real Tech Talk Podcast.

Next, we have Avison Young's own Alexandra Marolda. Alex is an Associate Director on our Tri-State Investment Sales Team. Prior, she spent over five years on the principal side overseeing a real estate portfolio consisting of 1,200 residential units and 50 retail units within Manhattan and the Greater New York City area. She has been honored by Real Estate Weekly as Rising Star and by the New York Real Estate Journal as One to Watch.

Finally, I speak with my friend Chad Cooley who is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of AWH Partners, a privately held investment firm focused on the hotel space. Prior he was a Vice President at the Related Companies. He is co-chair of Colgate's Real Estate Council, a group that is near and dear to my heart. I hope you get a lot out of this episode. As always, please visit Jamesnelson.com for show notes as well as the chance to pre-order my upcoming book, The Insider's Edge To Real Estate Investing.

On this week's show, I interview Brian Adams, who is the President and founder of Excelsior Capital. He has 10+ years of experience in real estate private equity previously co-founding Priam Properties. According to his firm's website, Excelsior Capital now has $200m of assets under management for a total of 1.1M SF, but Brian was quick to say its not about the statistics. He is more passionate about their track record of serving their 200+ active investors.

We spent the majority of our time discussing his fund-raising process as they do not operate as a fund. They raise capital for every transaction. He talks about how he cultivated this investor base and even admits to scaling too quickly by going into too many markets as once. He also talks about bringing a lot of their operations in house including bookkeeping and accounting. By listening, you'll learn about what worked, and what didn't.

What I find most impressive about Brian is his continued dedication to continually expanding his investor base. This means 5 meetings and 10 cold calls per day for him, which has now led to a database of 6,000 potential investors. He believes that most sponsors are really great at finding and repositioning deals, but very poor with this equally important component – raising capital. I know that you'll get a ton out of this episode!

You can check out excelisorgp.com to learn more about Brian and his platform.

We have a great show today. I will have the pleasure of interviewing Rob Lapidus, President, CIO, and Co-Founder, of L&L Holding Company. I have gotten to know Rob over the years as we sit on the board of SparkYouth together. He has an incredible story having started as an attorney, moving in house for a real estate developer, and then starting L&L with David Levinson in 2000 and ultimately growing it to a 400 person company with an 8 million square foot portfolio.

Prior to founding the Company, Rob was President of Westminster Capital Associates where he placed over $300 million of mortgage financing on multi-family, commercial and retail properties in New York and New Jersey . Before that, Rob was with Bellemead Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Chubb Corporation, where he learned the business handling leasing, management, syndication and financing of a 12 million square foot portfolio of office space. Rob graduated Magna Cum Laude from Wharton and received a degree from Cardozo Law School.

In this discussion, Rob talks about the importance of value and trust by playing the long game. This means sharing core values with your partners. He also talks about challenging your self by surrounding yourself by like minded individuals. This lead to Rob jumping to become a principal at a very early stage in his career. He goes on to talk about managing risk and taking on the right projects. He shares about "Building the Unbuildable" with their latest development TSX Broadway where they raised the historic Palace theater 30 feet in the air as part of a 47-story hotel tower. He also speaks about what went into building what he believes is the best office building in the world at 425 Park Avenue. I know you will get a lot out of the episode! To learn more about L&L's projects, please visit: https://www.ll-holding.com.

For this week's episode, I am happy to share Avison Young's 3rd Quarter 2022 State of the Market for New York City. Even if you invest outside this market, I know you will get value out of this episode. We discuss the decline in sales volume and values (with a few exceptions). There has been a shift in institutional demand to residential over office. I will cover what would be needed to convert office to residential which could be a big answer to this challenge. That being said, we will also look at data that shows that the return to office has not been uniform across various cities. There are huge variations based on submarket, industry, and tenancy.

Brent Glodowski, who heads our retail sales group, will then discuss the opportunities that exist in this segment of the market. He will cover how rising interest rates have pushed cap rates up and why 1031 buyers are the best in the market today.

Then Scott Singer, our Co-Lead of Tri-State Debt & Equity Finance, will talk about the debt markets and what to look out for the future. He will answer the question of if you should refinance now. He will also compare this cycles to the past to see if we can glean any wisdom. Finally, he will speak about how the Inverted Yield Curve could actually be a surprising opportunity for borrowers To follow along with the discussion please use this link:

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:290402e6-1837-321f-a816-469c057d815a

On this week's show, I interviewed Matthew Joseph, founder of Coastal Hotel Properties and West Avenue Realty. Matt reached out to me to share his story. I am approached multiple times per week by potential guests and their PR firms to come on my show. I really try and focus on active investors who I think will be of most benefit to you the listener. I believe Matt is definitely one of those investors! When I asked Matt about his investment experience, he told me that he started as a residential broker in 2005 in Miami where he sold over $300m of apartments. Then, he started working with investors flipping condos in 2009-2013 and then got into selling luxury. He said he realized the only way to get ahead is to own real estate, so he bought land on Biscayne Blvd. for $250k in 2006 and flipped it for $1.2m in 2013. Then he was hooked. He started syndicating and finding deals. He found a motel deal in 2015 on Craigslist, and created a cool niche by taking old roadside motels and making them cool. He'll talk about how he structured his first deal with just a deposit down.

Matt now has 18 years of direct real estate investment and sales experience. Today CHP is a privately held, fully integrated, entrepreneurial real estate and hotel management company that develops, acquires, and operates hospitality assets. CHP manages 400 units, 50 million portfolios throughout Florida and North Carolina. CHP is in the process of creating a new extended-stay brand called Coastal Suites.

What I really liked about Matt's interview was how he spoke about being a student of the game and the importance of being a constant learner. He also talked about how he looks at assets from the inside out to figure out how best to reposition. I know that you'll get a lot out of this episode. To connect with Matt you can link in with him at linkedin.com/in/mjlists, https://coastalgetaway.com/, https://coastalsuites.com/

For today's show, Dorothy Alpert, Avison Young's Tri-State president, and I discussed my upcoming book, The Insider's Edge To Real Estate Investing – Game Changing Strategies to Outperform the Market. Dorothy has a great perspective to bring to the table.

Dorothy had a 30+ year career at Deloitte, where she focused on strategy and operations consulting in the real estate industry, including leading the firms' real estate services practice in the U.S. where she led significant client relationships. Dorothy is also the co-founder of ULI Women's Leadership Initiative, on the Board of Trustees for the American Red Cross and a former Board Member of The New 42nd Street. Dorothy has been honored as one of Real Estate Forum's Women in Influence: Legends, Real Estate Forum's Women to Watch, and Real Estate New York's Women of Influence.

We talked about why there was a need for this book now and why someone should consider investing in the market today. We covered the things that someone should consider for their first purchase, as well as what makes for a great partner to start with. I think you'll benefit by learning what is most important when inspecting and valuing a property. We also talked about raising capital and financing the property, as well as the best way to get started. Lastly, you definitely don't want to miss the single most important question to ask when investing.

As opposed to most of the "fix-it, flip it" and "get rich quick" real estate books out there, The Insider's Edge to Real Estate Investing gives readers actionable steps from building the right team to sourcing opportunities to raising capital to ultimately closing. It will then instruct readers on how to reposition and profit on their investment and build a portfolio for the future. The book is being published by McGraw Hill and will be available in late January.

As one of NYC's top investment sales brokers, I have seen thousands of deals so knows what works and what doesn't. What makes real estate investing so exciting is that by gaining the insider's edge, you can outperform the market. This book will inspire those who have yet to make their first investment and will show veterans how to step up their game. It is a must read for college and masters students focused on real estate as well as those who work in any aspect of the business ranging from brokers to lenders to attorneys.

I not only draws on his experience as a broker, but as a partner in two successful real estate funds and as a limited partner in dozens of transactions. I have also gained amazing insight by interviewing over 100 top investors on this podcast, which has now been downloaded over 250,000 times. These are the lessons that I have shared as a guest lecturer at such schools as Columbia, NYU, and Wharton.

If you have not done so already, please pre-order your book or arrange for a bulk order at jamesnelson.com. It would mean a lot to me!

This week, I had a great conversation with Adir Levitas, founder and chief executive officer of Hoboken, NJ-based Faropoint, a vertically integrated, tech-enabled real estate investment manager that leverages data and deep market relationships to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns. Faropoint has acquired over 400 industrial buildings and over 20 million square feet of property. Since 2018, Faropoint has invested $2 billion in the last mile industrial sector becoming one of the most active investors in the United States.

When I asked Adir what his inside edge to real estate investing was, he said it's how his company sources the most qualified opportunities for their investors. He has setup 14 offices across the US each with its own acquisition professional. As a result, the company has cultivated great local broker relationships to provide the best deal flow. I also like how Adir shared about his change in mindset to switch from buying and flipping homes to building out an industrial portfolio which started in Memphis, TN.

Adir has focused on building Faropoint into a tech-enabled real estate investment manager, which uses proprietary software for real estate underwriting, due diligence, and portfolio management. Faropoint's technology platform allows the company to target inefficiencies in the marketplace and identify unique, often overlooked investment opportunities Faropoint's team consists of over 100 real estate and technology professionals located throughout the U.S., with an R&D center in Israel. Adir received a BA in Law from the IDC University in Israel, and is a Major in the Israeli Air Force(reserves).

You can find him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adir-levitas-0a37bb4b/ and find information on Faropoint at https://faropoint.com/.