Sometimes I get wrapped up in thinking about buildings as financial abstractions. I think about the cost of buying and renovating them, the rents we can achieve, the likely operating costs, the expected yield, the value on exit, the transaction costs and the profit.
I have the luxury of doing this because our very able team takes over the buildings shortly after I handle the buy and then I don’t really have anything to do with them until just before lease-up begins.
So, just to kind of remind myself that we’re talking about real buildings, real apartments, real neighborhoods, etc., I periodically stop by one or more of our construction sites.
If, like I sometimes am, you’re in danger of thinking about buildings in terms of numbers on a spreadsheet, here’s a useful reminder that we’re in the business of transforming tangible things:
