By now, we’ve had a LOT of experience dealing with city inspections. And we’ve seen how many different contractors handle them. And here’s what separates the contractors who get their permits signed off from the ones who get endless streams of corrections: Good quality work (obviously); and Confidence. The nature of renovating old buildings is … Continue reading “How a good contractor handles inspectors”
Blog
Describing what we do
Have been doing some thinking about how, exactly, to explain how Adaptive helps clients deploy capital in the multifamily space. Regular readers know we do bunch of different things, including: Managing real estate investments (via discretionary funds and one-off projects) Fee-for-service development (where we get paid cash to help investors buy and rehab their own properties) … Continue reading “Describing what we do”
What we want in a contractor
The construction part of our business is inherently messy. This isn’t new construction, where you start with a nice, flat lot and build exactly what your architect drew on the plans. Our raw material is old buildings with weird framing where the foundation has probably settled unevenly over the years. That means that what is on … Continue reading “What we want in a contractor”
My current catch-22
There are some deals right now that: Aren’t right for our current fund (because the near-term returns aren’t high enough), but I want to buy (because I think they have a lot of potential down the road) One obvious solution to this problem would be to buy the deals with non-fund money, either my own … Continue reading “My current catch-22”
How an HPOZ can screw up a deal
Am looking at an interesting deal, but it’s in an HPOZ (Historic Preservation Overlay Zone). Because the structure was built during the time-period the HPOZ is intended to protect, it is categorized as a “contributing structure”. It is extremely hard to do anything to a contributing structure.We would need prior approval for any work on the … Continue reading “How an HPOZ can screw up a deal”
Why I talk myself out of commissions
Recently, have found myself telling a lot of people not to buy real estate. Weird, right? It’s not that I don’t think people should own apartment buildings. They absolutely should, for a whole host of reasons. But the market is pretty hot right now and it’s easy to make a bad deal. I don’t worry about … Continue reading “Why I talk myself out of commissions”
Never lose units
Saw that someone arrived on the blog yesterday using the following search term “convert duplex into single family home”. Here’s my advice: Don’t do it. Or, at least, don’t do it with permits. Regular readers know I’m strongly in favor of using permits for every single construction project. It’s a bit more expensive, but you … Continue reading “Never lose units”
If I were a broker…
…who didn’t also renovate tons of apartment buildings, I would: Run rent surveys across all relevant neighborhoods, all the time Constantly poll my clients about construction costs for different finish levels and unit sizes Constantly poll my clients about eviction / tenant relocation costs Why would I do all these things? Because, without the above … Continue reading “If I were a broker…”
Taking apart a deal: An East Hollywood Duplex
Today, I’m going to try something new: Taking a look at a deal in one of our neighborhoods so that we can get a sense for what the numbers look like for the new owner. So, let’s take a look at an East Hollywood duplex that sold yesterday. I should start out by saying I didn’t offer … Continue reading “Taking apart a deal: An East Hollywood Duplex”
Stocks, bonds and real estate prices
In case you’ve been under a rock: The stock market has been in free-fall since the beginning of October. Here’s a handy chart: The thinking among investors is that the world economy is slowing due to weakness in Europe and China. Usually, when investors get spooked by stocks, they sell stocks and buy relatively safer government … Continue reading “Stocks, bonds and real estate prices”