We recently started work on another project, this one an eight unit deal in East Hollywood, right near some other projects we’ve done. It’s an interesting project: The front four units are going to be huge 3 beds and the back four (which were built later) will be reasonable sized 1/1s. We’ve got some parking … Continue reading “Here we go again”
Category: Buying
A pretty large appraisal discrepancy
Apologies for the lack of posts these last couple of days. Today, I got word that an appraisal hit at the contract on price ($850,000) on a deal one of our agents is working on. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, except that another appraiser for a different bank recently appraised the exact same … Continue reading “A pretty large appraisal discrepancy”
The benefits of being a good acquirer
Last week, we removed contingencies on the acquisition of a 16 unit building in an A area. The price is far from a steal, but it’s fair and, more importantly, works for us. The deal was never on the MLS or Loopnet. We didn’t win a bidding war. Instead, a broker with whom both buyer and … Continue reading “The benefits of being a good acquirer”
A real broker line
When discussing a deal with me today, a very good broker I know said the following, about a deal a client had in escrow at $1.1MM: “Well, it was listed at $1.3MM.” I don’t want to pick on this broker, because he’s good, but this is a bullshit broker line. As a buyer, you should not … Continue reading “A real broker line”
Closing on another one today
Today, we’re closing on a little fourplex deal in a neighborhood we really like. It’s a roughly $1.1MM all-in project, way too small on its own to be worth our time. However, it’s near a bunch of other stuff we’re renovating, it’s a simple project (no reconfiguration of the units), and we like the area … Continue reading “Closing on another one today”
Our business depends on this one little joke
Jon and I were talking about a deal we’re considering doing. We were going through the pluses and minuses, trying to make sure we were both comfortable with it. One of us said: “…, and we would be putting out a ton of capital.” We both paused, laughed, and then shook our heads. The reason … Continue reading “Our business depends on this one little joke”
What we are doing here at Adaptive
Our business generally obeys a truism about investing: It’s relatively easy to generate market-beating returns with small amounts of money, but very difficult to do so with large amounts of money. Because we were capital-starved in the beginning, and needed to generate market-beating returns to attract more, we tuned the Adaptive model to generate market-beating … Continue reading “What we are doing here at Adaptive”
Why we’re in emerging neighborhoods
Found myself talking about neighborhoods with a new agent of ours yesterday. We were discussing why our deals (both the ones we do for ourselves and the ones we broker) tend to be grouped in a few main areas, none of which are the Westside, Hollywood, or Miracle Mile. It’s not that we dislike working … Continue reading “Why we’re in emerging neighborhoods”
Comparing multifamily to office investing
And… we’re back. (I was at Princeton Reunions over the weekend and my flight didn’t get me back to LA until 3AM Monday morning.) Thought you might be interested in this article, which advocates that institutional investors consider allocating real estate investment dollars to multifamily instead of office. The argument should be familiar to regular … Continue reading “Comparing multifamily to office investing”
Some thoughts on my visit to Troy
During my visit to Troy, NY, I was enchanted, as usual, by the large number of stunning old brick industrial buildings sitting vacant along the Hudson River. These buildings are the kind that developers die for… brick (in an area with no earthquakes!), high ceilings, original casement windows, etc. You can take buildings like those and … Continue reading “Some thoughts on my visit to Troy”