Blog

During this past summer, we had two interns from Princeton (where I got by BA) come and work with us for a month each. We created the (paid!) intern program mostly because neither Jon nor I knew that real estate private equity existed when we were in college, and we wanted to give some motivated … Continue reading “Our internship program paid off handsomely”

Going to try to get back to writing, both because it brings new people into our world and also because it helps me clarify my thinking. Figured I’d start with an update on Adaptive. Long-time followers of our company know that we started Adaptive in 2012 with one employee, $0 in assets under management, and … Continue reading “And… I’m back”

People often ask me where I get my deals. More and more, we get them off-market, from agents with whom we have pre-existing relationships. But those aren’t the deals I’m proudest of. After all, it doesn’t take a genius to decide to buy a building for $235 / sq ft when it would cost $350 … Continue reading “The deals I’m proudest of”

Of all the things we do at Adaptive, the least glamorous, but possibly most important, is hiring and building team culture. In building our team, we confront a set of annoying problems: We are not exactly curing cancer here at Adaptive. Very, very few people grow up excited about the idea of renovating and managing … Continue reading “What I’ve learned about hiring and team building”

Regular readers know I’m fascinated by the history of the Blackstone Group, which is currently the world’s largest alternative asset manager. I love the story. Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson took one look at what KKR was doing with earlier LBOs and immediate set out to build their own shop. But they didn’t stick to … Continue reading “Looking for talent (as usual!)”

Was talking my Lyft driver’s ear off yesterday about how he ought to skip law-school and instead start or buy his own business. Realized that I have a very specific view on how someone can go about doing this that has been shaped by a lot of reading / listening over time. Figured I’d share … Continue reading “Where my ideas come from”

Was just going back through old posts for inspiration and came across this one, which rivals anything I’ve ever done for shear idiocy. If you found gold lying on the ground, would you: Jump up and down screaming about how there was gold on the ground so as to call it to the attention of … Continue reading “One of the dumbest things I ever did”

Regular readers know that I often complain about the lack of deals in the market. I’ve been doing it for years and I’m sure I’ll never stop. (I can hear Mr. Lyons, my old faculty advisor at the Phillipian, repeating his joke about the whiny Kagan brothers…) But, right now, the LA multifamily market feels … Continue reading “The market feels different”

Spent most of the day yesterday at the annual Marcus & Millichap LA apartment conference. As part of an on-stage interview, one broker (I won’t say which one) was asked what he sees happening over the next year. He went into a whole rap about how “it’s a good time to sell, there is capital … Continue reading “Classic bad advice at a broker conference”

In light of the news coming out of the bond market recently, I have been thinking about how the numbers behind our deals will change in the event of a recession. Obviously, the ideal scenario for us would be: Interest rates decrease; Rents stay the same or continue to rise; and Prices for assets decrease. … Continue reading “Are we headed into a buying opportunity?”