Smooth Operator: The Key to a Seamless Transition
We recently acquired a 256-unit value-add deal in Savannah, GA. Despite being a relatively new asset (2015 construction) and performing well (95% historical occupancy), we intend to upgrade and reposition the property, targeting rents approximately $250 above the market rate at takeover. We believe there is unmet demand in the submarket, which has experienced significant growth in recent years. However, achieving success requires flawless execution and a flexible hold period. Flawless execution begins prior to takeover. We establish goals and expectations for the staff. At Atlas, we...
The State of Evictions and the Role of Housing in Poverty
If you work in multifamily real estate (especially workforce housing), you’ve probably spent a lot of your time recently monitoring collections, modifying payment procedures, and working with delinquent residents. You’ve been closely tracking the various eviction restrictions enacted by the CARES Act, state and local agencies, and the CDC, trying to make sense of what it all means and what adjustments you should be making at the property-level. You’ve likely lost sleep thinking about the impact the expiration of the additional $600 per week in unemployment benefits may have on collections...
3rd Party Property Management: Far from a Set it and Forget it Solution
Many multifamily operators (Atlas included) utilize 3rd party property management to oversee the day-to-day management of their properties. It’s great in many ways. You can maintain a lean team, utilize the resources of a large institutional management firm, and make a change if they’re not performing up to your standards. That said, implementing a 3rd party to oversee your deals is hardly a ‘set it and forget it’ solution. Multifamily properties require aggressive hands-on asset management and certain tasks must be handled at the ownership level. In my experience, here’s what 3rd party...
The Game has Changed: The Importance of Connecting with Residents
Direct to consumer brands (think Harry’s, Warby Parker, and Casper) have stolen market share from the incumbents. Their success isn’t because they have a slightly better product, it’s because they are obsessed with connecting with the customer. Real estate owners/operators can learn a lot from the success of digitally native DTC brands. In the apartment industry, there is little brand awareness and almost no brand loyalty, so residents are up for grabs. Owners who resonate with prospects, offer a great value, and cater to their lifestyle will ultimately win. I spend a disproportionate...
The Key to Multifamily Asset Management: Controlling Costs and Creatively Adding Value
Every so often I scan through the real estate forum on Wall Street Oasis and I recently came across an interesting thread titled ‘Contrarian Thesis: Acquisitions is the Least Interesting Job in Real Estate’. The post argued that acquisitions is a repetitive job wrought with frustration and best-suited for young analysts who are hungry and proficient with the latest technology. Asset and portfolio management, on the other hand, tend to be the most valuable and interesting roles. The asset managers recognize the value-add upside, know what it cost to renovate, have intimate knowledge of...
The Multifamily ‘Amenities Arms Race’ Shows no Signs of Slowing
Multifamily development has picked up considerably over the past few years, as the demand for high-quality apartment communities near major employment centers and entertainment has increased. Driven by demographics, couples getting married and having kids later, lifestyle choices, and pent-up demand, millennials, Gen Z, and some Baby Boomers are flocking to newly-developed class A communities. These individuals seek a lifestyle and expect way more than a nice place to live; they desire conveniences, technology, a robust resident event program and sense of community, and amenities. Lots of...
The Key to an Effective Value-Add Strategy: Hands-On Oversight
In my role at Atlas, I oversee our value-add multifamily strategy. We buy 1970’s – 1990’s class B value-add properties and seek assets that are priced below replacement cost and comparable sales, where we can add value at then property level, and that are in markets we like long-term. Adding value is hard. It requires a hands-on approach, local market knowledge, creative-thinking, and great management skills. At Atlas, we’re a lean team and hire 3rd parties to assist with property management, construction management, design and architecture, and marketing. As such, my role is largely...
5 Things I learned in 2018 and 5 Goals for 2019
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you're able to unplug and enjoy quality time with family and friends. I find that time off, completely disconnected from the day-to-day grind of daily work is key to regaining focus and igniting the spark of creativity. 2018 was another productive year on ASotREG. I rolled out a site redesign (ASotREG 3.0), launched a new eBook on passive real estate investing, and published 14 new posts. I’m incredibly humbled and appreciative of everyone who has given me their attention. Your time is the most valuable asset you have, so it inspires me to do everything I...
Who Says Workforce Housing Can’t be Sexy
Historically, class B/C garden-style apartment communities have been typified by dated 70’s/80’s architecture, uninspiring interior design, lackluster landscaping, and boring commodity amenities. Recently, the divide between class A and class B/C apartment communities has been exacerbated by the amenity arms race, with each new development looking to outdo its competitors. It’s common for new communities to include golf simulators, meditation rooms, indoor self-cleaning dog parks, rooftop pool/lounges, and generally over-the-top design and features, while class B communities still have...
Integrating Data Across the Real Estate Life-Cycle
As the real estate industry becomes more institutionalized, there is greater demand for quality data. Data is the key to making informed decisions. Having a solid grasp of the current cap rates, financing markets, vacancy rates, rent growth projections, construction costs, population, employment, and income growth, are all critical to accurate deal underwriting and execution. However, most real estate professionals (myself included) only have access to select data-sources, providing limited data which may or may not be out-of-date. The data we maintain internally is unstructured and...
Aspects of the Real Estate Acquisition Process I find Frustrating
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been deep in a new value-add multifamily transaction. Acquiring real estate is cumbersome, complex, and opaque, yet we continue to complacently accept this reality. Part of the issue is that acquiring real estate is very fragmented, with different players collecting disparate data, requiring 3rd parties, and all profiting from different elements of the process. This complexity is exactly where opportunity lies. Based on my recent experience, here are a few of the aspects of the acquisition process I find most frustrating. Deal Sourcing The deal sourcing...
How to Make Apartment Features and Amenities Sounds Sexy
We recently embarked on a project aimed at improving the online marketing process for all our multifamily properties. The intent was to greatly improve our web presence, access deeper analytics, build a multifamily brand, and control the process from the ownership-level. Since we utilize 3rd party property management, each asset utilized a different website template, property management software, paid search marketing strategy, lead tracking process etc. From the ownership side, we had little transparency into the effectiveness of each marketing channel and were unable to make data-driven...
The Challenge (and Benefit) of Quarterly Reporting in Real Estate
In the wake of new regulation and rise of real estate crowdfunding platforms, there’s been significant growth in private real estate syndications where operators pool capital from a group of high-net-worth investors to acquire a property and execute a specific investment strategy. In the past, real estate syndications were done on a trust-basis; operators would go out to a handful of their buddies to raise the capital. Under this structure, reporting was less important. If things didn’t go as planned, operators had to deal with their uncle, best friend, and golf buddies. That, in and of...
The Real Estate Software Powering Our Growth: Featuring Dealpath
Over the past 7 years, Atlas has acquired 45 properties with a total deal value of ~$800M. Over that time, we’ve grown from 3 guys in a 100 SF shared office, to an integrated team with 5 operating platforms. It’s been a wild ride full of exciting expansion, but along with rapid growth comes growing pains. To continue to scale our acquisition process, we needed to put processes in place to efficiently manage investor reporting, asset management, acquisitions, and company operations. Luckily, real estate-specific software companies have sprung up to bring efficiency to all aspects of real...
Why we Prefer Value-Add Deals and Long-Term Holds
Real estate firms and investors each form their own investment strategy based on their risk-tolerance, desired hold period, expertise, and target returns. Some prefer core or core-plus investments which are typically high-quality assets in primary markets with little unrealized upside, while others prefer opportunistic investments such as ground-up development. Here at Atlas, we target primarily value-add transactions where we can execute a specific strategy with the aim of refinancing upon stabilization and holding long-term. Value-add transactions possess upside through a variety of...
What’s Your Moat? 4 Forms of Sustainable Competitive Advantages at Atlas
The key to success in real estate investing (and business) isn’t simply finding a competitive advantage, it’s having a sustainable advantage that others are unable to replicate. Warren Buffet popularized the term economic moat, which refers to a “business’s ability to maintain competitive advantages over its competitors in order to protect its long-term profits and market share from competing firms.” As real estate becomes more institutionalized, the typical competitive advantages are arbitraged away; Informational advantages, even in secondary and tertiary markets, are not sustainable....
Landing Your First Analyst Job in Commercial Real Estate
Having conversations with industry experts and talking as little about yourself as possible is the best way to learn. It's why I love the blog format so much - I get to engage with interesting people and invite them to share their experiences with all of you. I love being the less knowledgeable person in the conversation and asking the simple questions. In this post, Spencer Burton, a co-author of Adventures in CRE (A.CRE), shares his experiences and thoughts on landing your first analyst job in commercial real estate. Although this is a topic I've written about before, Spencer's...
Why You Need an Informational and Analytical Edge in Real Estate
One of my favorite podcasts is ‘Invest Like the Best’ hosted by Patrick O’Shaughnessy. He has a mix if incredible guests from all ends of the finance world (venture capital, authors, researchers, portfolio managers), and recently did an episode on quantitative investors. Institutional investing is becoming increasing quant-driven and firms are utilizing all sorts of tools and data-sets to produce alpha. To a layman, the sophistication of these shops is almost unimaginable (you quickly realize it’s impossible for a retail investor to compete!). Investors are utilizing a wide-range of...
Juniper Square: the Real Estate Investment Management System Designed to Scale
Over the past 7 years, the Atlas portfolio and investor network has grown exponentially. What started as an intimate group of friends and family, has ballooned to a robust network of 400+ individual high-net-worth investors. Over time, the administrative burden of managing 1,200+ investor positions across 30+ deals making quarterly distributions became overwhelming. Here’s what our quarterly reporting process looked like: Draft a 3-5 page quarterly summary for each deal in MS Word, plug in an income statement in Excel, convert the document to PDF, and email to each investor through...
How Origin Investments Raised $10 Million of Equity in 1 Week: Part 2
In September, Ben Harris, head of investor relations for Origin Investments, shared the approach that enabled Origin to raise over $4M of capital online in a single week. Ben walked through the keys to building trust with investor’s online and aligning interest with investment partners. However, what resonated with me most, was Origin's focus on the ‘long game’. When investing in private real estate deals, investors are often making a 10-year commitment, and sometimes longer. With that time-horizon in mind, the integrity of the people you’re investing with far outweighs the fundamentals...