I’m Joe Stampone. I work at Atlas Real Estate Partners (‘AREP’), a private real estate investment firm focused on value-add multifamily investments. ASotREG is a place where I share my thoughts on real estate as a career, technology, entrepreneurship, passive investing, and anything else that piques my interest.
Recent Posts
Apartments, Hotels, What’s the Difference!?
The way people are living, and traveling has fundamentally changed and the lines between apartments and hotels have blurred. Guests and renters are no longer constrained by a market flooded with watered-down options and brands dictating the experience. Today, renters and travelers have nearly endless options, catering to any experience they seek. I recently traveled to Nashville and I decided to test out Niido, an apartment community ‘powered by Airbnb’. It’s a traditional midrise apartment community that allows (encourages, actually) its residents to rent out their apartments...
Bringing a Hospitality Mindset to Multifamily Development
We’re in the midst of a multifamily development boom. If you’ve been to any major city over the past few years, you see ‘stumpy’ midrise developments everywhere. The forgettable stick-frame buildings all look similar. They are relatively cheap to construct, go up quickly, and cater to a wave of demand from Millennials and Gen Z’ers delaying marriage, having kids, and buying or renting a home in the suburb. With the cost of construction and land at elevated levels, development yields are compressed, developers have little flexibility to physically differentiate their property from the...
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 Bearish Case for Multifamily
Multifamily has been the darling of the recovery and remains one of the most sought-after asset classes. And why wouldn’t it be? We’re constantly bombarded with the case for multifamily; there’s a secular shift toward renting, millennials are getting married and having kids later, baby boomers are downsizing and seeking an urban lifestyle, multifamily construction was well below historic norms coming out of the recession, many 18-34-year-old’s live at home and will eventually enter the renter pool etc. etc. It’s a compelling case. Some of these are real, while others are overblown. In...
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...
Do We Need to Change the Way we Think About Homeownership?
My answer to the question posed in the title is ‘I have no idea’. However, I’m a firm believer that homeownership is not the best path for everyone and that the role of homeownership in the U.S. has been skewed in a way that is dangerous. The term ‘American Dream’ comes from James Truslow Adams ‘Epic of America’ who wrote in 1931, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with the opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.” The original term didn’t have anything to do with real estate but has evolved over...
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...
What’s Driving the Demand for Apartments and why I’m Bullish Class B Multi
Multifamily, class B in particular, has been one of the best performing asset classes over the past decade. Demand has outpaced supply, leading to sustained rent growth and significant investor interest. As of March 2019, the average apartment vacancy rate was near all-time lows at roughly 6.5%. While the demand drivers for apartments is somewhat obvious, I want to dig into the statistics/fundamentals in more depth. It’s important to first understand the size of the market. There are 120M households in the U.S. totaling 317M total people. Of the total households, roughly 43M are...
Heaps of Fun Exploring the Land Down Under
G’day. How ya goin’? I spent the past two weeks exploring Australia. It’s an incredible place filled with modern cities, unique animals, beautiful landscape, great coffee, and welcoming people. As I like to do, I wanted to share some of my observations (I did something similar with recent trips to Japan and Costa Rica). For the past 14 days, I was largely disconnected from work, sports, and U.S. news. The time change (Australia is 15-16 hours ahead of the east coast) almost forced me to disconnect from the day-to-day news. I found it quite liberating and was a good reminder of how toxic...
The Only Information Needed to Make Multifamily Investment Decisions
The real estate community has become obsessed with data. In the multifamily space alone, there are countless sources for all sorts of ‘relevant’ data; Costar, Axiometrics, REIS, Reonomy, RCA, MPF Research, Yardi Matrix, etc. The access to data has brought transparency to the space, but has led to better decision-making or just more noise? There’s been several studies which have concluded that more information doesn’t necessarily lead to better investment decisions and oftentimes, having more information can be harmful because it leads to over-confidence and fuels confirmation bias....