We’ve managed a bunch of buildings in gentrifying areas of LA for a long time, and I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that property crime (theft, tagging, etc.) has gone up markedly over the past few years. Most recently, we have a building where cars have been broken into in the … Continue reading “A rising tide of (petty) crime”
Author: Moses Kagan
Why is the AIDS Healthcare Foundation supporting the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative?
Snapped this pic this morning (at some risk to life and limb): 2PreserveLA is the group pushing the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, which is an absolutely disastrous proposal that would effectively block most- or all large multi-use projects in LA. Why does this matter? Well, the only real way to slow the growth of rent in LA is … Continue reading “Why is the AIDS Healthcare Foundation supporting the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative?”
Thinking about the path not taken
Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about where we are in the cycle, debt, risk and asset allocation. You see, many of my contemporaries have been doing fairly high-leverage development deals and doing very well with them. We at Adaptive have shied away from those sorts of deals, for two, related reasons: You … Continue reading “Thinking about the path not taken”
The importance of a great insurance broker
Want to get into the business of repositioning apartment buildings? You’re going to spend a ton of time working with insurance brokers. Why? Well, consider what happens when you buy a building: You need a standard policy for the period between closing on the building and the beginning of construction; Then, you need a construction … Continue reading “The importance of a great insurance broker”
Letting a pitch go by
When someone joins Adaptive, one of the things I tell her is that she should not worry too much about making a mistake. The reasons are that (i) we can fix pretty much any mistake, so long as we know about it*; and (ii) Jon and I make bigger mistakes than any of our employees … Continue reading “Letting a pitch go by”
What hustle can do for you
Further to my earlier post about the amount of opportunity available for Millennials who want to seize it… thought I’d share with you the experience of one of our leasing agents this weekend. Keep in mind this woman has a full-time job she works during the week. Instead of sitting around all weekend (like I … Continue reading “What hustle can do for you”
AirBnB in Silver Lake
Spent a bunch of time yesterday arranging an AirBnB for my parents, who are coming to LA for six weeks this spring. What does this have to do with a multifamily blog? A lot. The pricing for stand-alone, decent 1/1 – 2/1 houses is in Silver Lake is basically $3500-4000 / month. That compares with … Continue reading “AirBnB in Silver Lake”
What we want to buy (part 346)
The market for apartment buildings has been dry as a bone so far this year and I’m starting to get antsy again. Judging from past experience (documented on this blog), what this means is that I’ll be in escrow on like three deals next week. But, for the sake of leaving no stone unturned, allow … Continue reading “What we want to buy (part 346)”
Why a real estate career isn’t that risky
I began my career in investment banking helping entrepreneurs sell their media and tech companies to bigger, usually public companies. I quit because I knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial myself. My first venture was a pretty stupid one. I invested a lot of time and money into an interesting tech concept, but one … Continue reading “Why a real estate career isn’t that risky”
Rebuilding the plane in the air
One of the strange things about Adaptive is that neither Jon and I have never managed lots of people before. So, as our operation has grown, we have had to learn by trial and error (mostly error, honestly) about hiring, retaining, motiving people. We’ve also found ourselves having to re-think entire aspects of our operations, … Continue reading “Rebuilding the plane in the air”