Just finished a little triplex we renovated on behalf of another group. When they bought it, it was a diaster: Two units vacant, one occupied but falling apart. Now, it’s a beautiful little complex of three separate homes, each with parking and private outdoor space. The pics are below. Two of the units are rented. … Continue reading “420 N Commonwealth is done”
Category: Building Adaptive
When will I be done?
Someone asked me last week when we have enough units to be “done”. The question threw me for a loop, because it’s something I’ve never really considered. That’s weird, right? I’m on a journey to build a big business investing money in apartment buildings and I’ve never really considered what the end-point is. I couldn’t … Continue reading “When will I be done?”
An offer to my readers
Just read an interesting article (Wall Street Journal, subscription required) about one of the tactics Sequoia, one of the most successful VC firms, uses to find deals and want to replicate it. Here’s a description of the program: “Since 2009, Sequoia has funneled millions of dollars to scores of well-connected entrepreneurs, academics and other people known as … Continue reading “An offer to my readers”
How to think about entering a new neighborhood right now
Because the market is hot and interesting deals are fewer and farther between, we’ve been poking around in some new neighborhoods. Is this crazy? After all, isn’t a hot market exactly the wrong time to go outside your circle of competence? Under some circumstances, it’s not. If you can find a deal with good numbers and … Continue reading “How to think about entering a new neighborhood right now”
When is a rehab not a rehab?
When is a rehab not really a rehab? Here are some pics of a deal on Alvarado, a duplex we’re changing into a 4plex. As you’ll see, the only thing separating this “rehab” from a ground-up project is, well, a door-frame. On 7/28, after we bought it: On 9/17, mid demo: On 10/29, as the foundation … Continue reading “When is a rehab not a rehab?”
An update on our crowd-funding experiment
Yesterday, I sent an email to the mailing list to gauge reader interest in a new fund. Unlike previous funds, which had $100,000 minimum investments, we’re considering opening this one to investors with as little as $10,000. The reason is pretty simple: Grow the number of people who have invested with us and like what … Continue reading “An update on our crowd-funding experiment”
What we do
It’s been a while, so I figured I’d remind everyone exactly what we do here at Adaptive Realty: Money-management: This part of our business involves investing money on behalf of ourselves and our equity partners. The structures vary. Some deals are blind pools, where we select the properties to buy. Others are one-off JVs, where we … Continue reading “What we do”
Considering crowdfunding
One of our competitors put a deal up on a crowdfunding site recently, so far with not-particularly-good results. Still, it made me think about whether crowdfunding is right for Adaptive. We have traditionally had a minimum investment of $100k for our deals. This is mostly for ease of administration… each investor, no matter how small, should … Continue reading “Considering crowdfunding”
Why we haven’t done commercial deals
“So, why don’t you guys do commercial deals?” I get asked that question a lot, so I figured I’d answer it here. The first thing to say is that we absolutely would do a commercial deal given the right balance between risk and reward (and investors who wanted to follow us into it). But I … Continue reading “Why we haven’t done commercial deals”
A long term building program
Have been doing some thinking about ground up development of small-to-medium size apartment buildings lately. We’ve not built ground-up before, but we’re getting closer and closer and I believe ground-up is likely to be a big part of our business mix in the coming years. Here’s how I think about it: Assuming reasonable planning … Continue reading “A long term building program”