Category: Uncategorized

Thought you’d appreciate seeing an initial rendering of a nine unit building we’re going to build.    

As deals become harder to find in this cycle, we’re thinking about new ways to expand our business. One of the options is to make a push into single family home brokerage. Before you keel over, understand: I’m not advocating that people buy single family homes as investments. Except in very specific circumstances (like 2009-2011), … Continue reading “Pondering single family home brokerage”

Today, am going to speak to Mott Smith’s real estate development class at USC. The topic? Capital structures for real estate entrepreneurs… or, in other words, how to build a real estate business from scratch without starving. Here’s the rough outline for my talk: First: Do good deals Why a small asset base is a problem … Continue reading “Giving a talk today”

BL, a reader of this blog, sent me an interesting article yesterday about the interaction between Uber/Lyft use and car ownership. Regular readers know I regard ride sharing as a major force that will re-shape the nature of in-fill real estate development. If you’re just joining us: As the price of ride sharing falls (which … Continue reading “Some indications that ride sharing may be reducing car ownership”

Thought you’d appreciate seeing some progress photos from a project we have going at 1129-1135 N Virgil, right by Sunset Junction. It’s a complex of three duplexes and a single family home, all with parking and private outdoor space. When we started in our business, Hoover was definitely the western boundary of Silver Lake. These … Continue reading “1129-1135 N Virgil coming right along”

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)”

There’s a big fight brewing on the California Coastal Commission. In a nutshell: The Coastal Commission board, which includes a lot of relatively pro-development members appointed by Governor Brown, is in the midst of throwing out the current director, mostly because he’s insufficiently pro-development. The usual suspects, mostly environmental groups, are all up in arms. … Continue reading “Some thoughts on the fight at the CA Coastal Commission”

We’re in the midst of totally rethinking how we market our vacancies. Up to now, we’ve done things on an ad hoc basis, with each leasing consultant handling her assigned vacancies however she thought fit. Now, we’ve got enough projects coming on line that we need to systematize what we’re doing. So, we’d like to speak … Continue reading “Rethinking our marketing”

I don’t write about books much on this blog, but I’m a major reader. And, because I’m a real estate nerd, a lot of the books are either about real estate itself or related fields (like private equity, corporate takeovers, etc.). Am reading one now that’s got a ton of interesting anecdotes and thought I’d pass … Continue reading “Skyscraper Dreams”

As you know, Adaptive is moving towards doing more ground-up construction projects. As we do, we’re learning more and more about the zoning code and how it shapes what gets built here. And as I learn, I’m going to share with you. So, that said, here’s an interesting factoid: The LA zoning code makes it almost … Continue reading “Why we’re going to build a lot of studios not one beds”