Category: Uncategorized

Attended a Princeton alumni event last night and got into an interesting conversation with a guy who is considering investing in a syndicated multifamily deal in Arizona. He asked me my thoughts. Here’s what I told him: Focus on the operator, not the deal. Why? First, there’s no way an amateur is going to come to … Continue reading “Should I invest in this deal?”

Had drinks with a friend who is an architect / developer last night. We got to talking about a big piece of land he owns in Echo Park. He is currently planning to develop it as a small lot subdivision and sell off the resulting homes. I told him this may be a mistake, and … Continue reading “Re-thinking for sale development”

Just completed this 4plex on Alvarado just south of Echo Park. This one is near to our hearts, because it’s the first building Jon and I ever built from the ground up. The units are 3 bed / 1 bath and have two parking spaces each. The downstairs ones are particularly cool; they have huge … Continue reading “132 N Alvarado is done”

Have been doing some thinking about WeWork’s business model and I’m not impressed. In case you haven’t run into WeWork, it’s kind of the prototypical co-working company. They develop and manage nice, shared office spaces that individuals and small companies can rent on a week-to-week basis. The reason WeWork exists is that there is a mismatch between … Continue reading “My problem with WeWork”

Am inspecting a house for my parents today in Silver Lake. It’s a very odd feeling to see them paying $1MM for a house which they could easily have bought for $700-800k just a few years ago. Obviously, my deal-doer alarms are ringing, particularly because this is a single family house where, if they rented it … Continue reading “Mixed feelings about a house for my folks”

The day after July 4th, want to take the opportunity to express my appreciation for this country. I was born here. But many in my family were not. In fact, a whole bunch of my family members had the misfortune of being born Jews in Eastern Europe in the early 20th Century. Most of them … Continue reading “A short appreciation of America”

Just completed the refinancing of the first of two properties in Adaptive Realty Fund 3, a pool of $2.41MM we raised approximately 18 months ago. We were all in on this building for ~$2.3MM, of which $800k was a bridge loan and the rest was cash. Because we’re good at what we do, the property … Continue reading “A nice win for Adaptive Realty Fund 3”

When you’re in a commodity business like supplying title insurance in Los Angeles, you have a strong incentive to provide really great customer service, because, otherwise, how can you distinguish your company from all the other companies providing exactly the same coverage at pretty much the same price? So it’s been pretty frustrating this morning … Continue reading “Why I won’t use Lawyer’s Title again”

Am not a huge stock market guy by any means. The vast majority (I mean, vast – like 98% or something) of my personal net worth is in LA real estate. Still, I am interested in the public equity markets because they’re fascinating. And today’s Brexit-related market gyrations put me in mind of Benjamin Graham’s famous … Continue reading “Brexit is making Mr. Market nuts”

You’ll rarely hear us asking a company to take our money. But we’re doing it today. As you probably know, we’ve been hit by a rash of scammers posting fake Adaptive ads, hoping to steal money from naive potential renters. This scam works because the cost of customer acquisition is basically nil. All the crooks need to … Continue reading “Adaptive to Craigslist: Take our money, please”