Here’s a sobering fact: The overhead at Adaptive Realty runs something like $45k / month. That means, before Jon and I see $1 in 2016, we need to bring in revenue of around $540k. Why have we set our business up like this, rather than just being “deal doers” who are lean and mean? The … Continue reading “Building a platform”
Category: Building Adaptive
Some lessons from Skyscraper Dreams
Finally finished Skyscraper Dreams over the weekend. Lessons learned: It’s best to start a real estate business when it’s possible to leg into 20% caps (this is now impossible); Ideally, you would build your 20% caps in a city destined to become the world’s financial capital, so that you would also benefit from massive land … Continue reading “Some lessons from Skyscraper Dreams”
2015 Year in Review
Thought I’d take this opportunity to let you all know where we are as 2015 comes to a close and what we hope / expect for next year. During 2015: We acquired 11 buildings in which we have ownership stakes (and helped other groups acquire a whole bunch more); As I write this, we’re in the … Continue reading “2015 Year in Review”
A gap in the lending market
Today I want to talk about a major gap I see in the lending market. As a real estate entrepreneur, your choices for loans generally boil down to: Bank loans, which cost in the range of 3.5-4.5% but are painful to get (because of the underwriting process) and take 30-60 days to close; or Private … Continue reading “A gap in the lending market”
Checking in on our “rehab” deal
And… we’re back. As you know, we’re in the process of “rehabbing” a 4plex in Echo Park right now. I say “rehabbing”, because it’s effectively new construction, as you will see below. When we started this project, I was mentally prepared to treat it like a standard rehab deal, except with slightly more risk and … Continue reading “Checking in on our “rehab” deal”
Genesis of a great deal
Today, we’re closing on a 4plex that warrants some special attention. It’s in a good neighborhood, it’s ~4700 sq ft, and we’re buying it for $810k, or $172 / sq ft. That’s a great deal in a neighborhood where the cheapest comp I can find in the last six months sold for $300 / sq. … Continue reading “Genesis of a great deal”
Speaking at the Southern California Apartment Summit next week
Just agreed to join a panel at the Southern California Apartment Summit taking place in Irvine on Thursday, December 17. Here’s a link to the conference website. My panel will be about the state of the “middle market”, eg non-institutional scale properties. Think this panel and, indeed, the whole conference, will be of interest to readers … Continue reading “Speaking at the Southern California Apartment Summit next week”
What a good deal looks like
Sometimes, this is what victory looks like: That’s a wire from Crown Escrow (a Silver Lake-based, family-owned escrow company which I strongly endorse, fyi) for $2.59MM, the net proceeds of our refinance of 201 N Ave 55, a 12 unit building we purchased in Highland Park in June 2014. As I believe I’ve mentioned here … Continue reading “What a good deal looks like”
First concept for interiors on our first true ground-up project
Am unreasonably excited today because we got the drawing below via email from our architect: That’s his first crack at the interiors on the new fourplex we’re building in Highland Park. Now, I’m quite certain that Jon is going to have a field-day marking this baby up (for example: that kitchen is pretty damn small!). … Continue reading “First concept for interiors on our first true ground-up project”
The difficulty in building a money management business
Had an interesting dinner last night with a couple of guys who work for other people but are thinking about going out on their own to do deals. Found myself explaining the difficulty inherent in doing so and think it might interest you, my readers. The money management business is fundamentally amazing at scale. Here’s … Continue reading “The difficulty in building a money management business”