Street Smart Success

Although Mobile Home Parks have been great investments over the past couple decades, they have not been immune to the same challenges that other asset classes have faced. These include interest rate escalations plus operating costs such as labor, supplies, and insurance. Despite these headwinds, however, prices have mostly held firm although imminent loan maturities may yield attractive buying opportunities. Jeff Cook, CEO of Cook ...

Even though prices on multifamily properties have come down 20%-30%, most of these still don’t make sense because higher interest rates and increased expenses have more than offset the price decreases. As a result, transaction volume for quality properties in great markets is still low. Brooks Mosier, Principal and co-founder of United Point Capital, is one of the largest buyers of single-family homes in Kansas City and has leverag...

To be successful in any niche, you need to find a market inefficiency and a discernible differentiator. Too many sectors within commercial real estate have become commodities as unprecedented volumes of capital have been deployed. One sector that remains relatively inefficient is small balance lending, or “Micro balance loans,” to smaller operators borrowing $200,000 - $1,500,000. Chris Carley, Managing Partner of Kirkland Capital ...

With so much information available, it’s easy to get educated on an asset class or an opportunity before investing. Although there’s no substitute for hands-on experience, you can still reduce risk through education. Steffany Boldrini, Principal at Monte Carlo Real Estate Investments, invested in car washes in North Texas and learned the hard way that she didn’t know what she didn’t know. Six years later, Steffany is recouping her ...

Despite some of the challenges that have faced multifamily in the past few years, some markets have been affected less than others. The Midwest in particular has fared better than most other parts of the country. There are many markets like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Louisville, and many others that have experienced minimal new construction combined with consistent renter demand. As a result, these markets have maintained high occupanc...

Over the past several years, most of the returns in real estate have been generated because of declining interest rates and cap rates. If you just held on to properties long enough, even without successfully executing on a business plan, you fared well. However, an oversupply of capital resulted in overly unrealistic underwriting for both lenders and operators, and distress has ensued. In more recent years, the tide has changed, an...

Not only has commercial real estate been faced with escalating borrowing costs and lower rents, but it has also been challenged by rising expenses, especially taxes and insurance. In this environment, it’s become essential for survival to aggressively manage these expenses. Matt Buchalski, Head of Sales for Ownwell, helps property owners lower these costly line items in order to protect and increase their NOI and valuations. Ownwel...

The world of alternative investing can generate diversification, cash flow and tax efficiency. It can also be opaque and risky and has created massive losses for uninitiated investors. Unlike public companies, there’s a far lower regulatory threshold for private companies to provide transparency to investors. The key to being successful in this world is being able to assess risk quantitatively and qualitatively. Leyla Kunimoto, Co-...

One asset class that still has great deals on sub-institutional properties is Mobile Home Parks. Although larger parks near major metros are being acquired by REITs, Private Equity, and other institutions, parks with fewer than 100 sites are being acquired by smaller investors with far less competition. Smaller parks in secondary and tertiary markets offer great buying opportunities with value-add components that result in tremendo...

Although the margins are thin in Multifamily, there are niches that provide outsized returns without undue risk. One example is government-sponsored affordable housing. By creating public-private partnerships, it takes a lot of risk off the table, Jesse Sells, Co-Founder and COO of Impact Growth Capital, recently began a partnership with the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority for a $300 million development to develop 600 ne...

Real Estate is a block-to-block business, especially multifamily. There are too many nuances involved to manage multifamily without boots on the ground. This is where a lot of operators went wrong over the past several years. In addition to buying in markets they didn’t know, many inexperienced operators followed the herd by overbidding on properties and used risky debt to make deals pencil. Most of these operators and their invest...

Like many other markets, the Dallas-Ft Worth market got oversaturated with new apartments over the last couple years. As the torrent job and population growth continues to flourish, however, new supply is getting absorbed, even C Class properties. Occupancy in these buildings is increasing because there’s a shortage of workforce housing. The key is being able to manage these properties effectively. Jimmy Edwards, Founder and Direct...

Even though the Real Estate market has contracted significantly as a result of interest rate hikes and rising operating expenses, it’s still difficult to find great deals, especially in large metros where there’s still a lot of money on the sidelines looking for deals. By comparison, it’s easier to find cash flowing opportunities in tertiary markets. Brian Ferguson, Founding and Managing Partner at Fergmar Capital Group, lives and ...

Anyone who’s been following the trajectory of commercial real estate over the past few years knows there’s a lot of distress in the market. If you’re in the enviable position to deploy capital, however, this can be good news. With distress comes opportunity, and the market is currently presenting great investment opportunities on both the debt and equity side. Beyond Real Estate, there are also opportunities that can generate high ...

Passive investing in private offerings can yield above market returns, it can also be a complete disaster. Apart from evaluating proforma numbers, it’s critical to evaluate the General Partner and the team. The numbers are generic, the intangibles, including the character of who you’re investing with, are less quantifiable and therefore harder to vet. There are too many newer, and generally inexperienced operators, cutting their te...

The multifamily business has been brutal for most operators over the past few years, especially for ones who took on bridge debt. There’s been too much new supply, and skyrocketing interest rates caught most operators off guard. For low-income workforce housing, the tenant base has gotten crushed by inflation which has resulted in higher delinquencies and higher vacancies. At the same time, however, there has been almost no new con...

The multifamily space has many niches and myriad ways to maximize invested dollars.  One of the more specialized multifamily niches is government voucher programs, otherwise known as Section 8. These can be great properties to invest in because the need for this kind of housing is immense, tenants stay for many years, and rents are guaranteed by the government. There are complexities to implementing these programs, so the competiti...

One asset class within commercial real estate that many people don’t think about is luxury Short-Term Rentals. Houses that cost between $2 and $5 million typically rent for $500-$1,500 per night and generate $200,000 or even more per year in revenue, comparable to small apartment buildings. Investors can use these properties themselves, they enjoy the cash flow, plus they benefit from capital preservation and appreciation. Stephen ...

Investing in private real estate deals can be fraught with pitfalls, so you need to get to know who you’re investing with before investing. In the past five years, many multifamily operators in particular, paid too much for properties and got the wrong kind of debt with too much leverage. Unfortunately, many investors have lost their principal as a result. At the same time, there are better multifamily opportunities to invest in no...