I’m Joe Stampone. I work at Atlas Real Estate Partners (‘AREP’), a private real estate investment firm focused on value-add and ground-up multifamily investments. ASotREG is a place where I share my thoughts on real estate, careers, technology, entrepreneurship, passive investing, and anything else that piques my interest.
42 Floors: Making NYC Office Search Simple (and Beautiful)
Over the summer my firm expanded into our own headquarters. Being in the real estate business, we decided to undertake the entire process ourselves; who needs a broker to find space? Build out, we can handle that. Interior design, no problem. Fast forward 8 months and we’re finally putting the final touches on the interior design and layout. In that time, we toured more than 15 spaces, dealt with construction delays, managed unresponsive subs, and browsed countless blogs for interior design inspiration. Now there’s a service that simplifies the entire process. Recently launched in NYC, 42...
A Student Pursuing the Real Estate Game: How to Land a Job While Still in College
I spend a lot of time talking to undergrads interested in getting involved in real estate. Typically, they know little about the real estate business, its various sub-sectors, and how to break into the business. However, I had a recent conversation with a Tufts undergrad who really impressed me. He was doing everything right. Rather than hear it from me. I thought I'd let Scott share his experience first-hand. -- “You’re doing the right thing.” But when does “doing the right thing” turn into a job opportunity? For many college students, like myself, finding a job in this economy is a...
Play Your Hand (in Hand) in Real Estate
I love to involve friends in the blog. I get to catch up with buddies on a professional level while giving them the platform to share their story. Hence my excitement when my friend, Bill Glaab, agreed to do an interview for A Student of the Real Estate Game. I was at Bill’s wedding this past summer when his best man, his brother, posed a question to the guests: ‘Who here has received a call from Bill seeking an investment in a crazy new idea or business venture,’ sparking most hands to jump up. Bill, a true entrepreneur in every sense, constantly seeks new business opportunities. After...
What to Expect and How to Prepare for an Interview in Real Estate Private Equity Part I
Real estate private equity is the most sough-after role in the real estate business. A good friend of mine recently went through the process of preparing for and interviewing with a top tier real estate private equity firm. While preparing for the interview, he quickly realized that there was a severe lack of credible information out there. He approached me with a desire to share his story and help others navigate the rigorous interview process with real estate private equity firms. Part I of his story covers the first two interviews. He was nice enough to walk through his experience in...
Career Series – What it takes to be Jonathan Miller
I’m excited to bring you the first installment of the ASotREG career series. This ongoing series explores the various career options in real estate and explains what to expect as a junior person, the highly coveted skills, typical career paths, and how to succeed in each sector with insights from accomplished professionals in that field. This idea was spurred by the countless conversations I've had with college students looking to get into real estate. They’re passionate and eager to begin their careers, but often times they don’t know the players in real estate consist of anything beyond...
The Perfect Path to Real Estate Success
I often receive emails from college students and recent grads asking me about the best path to real estate success. Many aspire to work at large private equity shops like Blackstone or Carlyle and transition to working with seasoned and well-capitalized operators and when they have the right experience and Rolodex of contacts they hope to go off on their own and build extreme wealth. My response to them is usually twofold; while this is a great career path for some, in today’s environment you have to take what you can get and you must look at your existing skills and interests and see...
Speaking With The Master of the Real Estate Game
As many of you know, the inspiration for this blog title came from Bill Poorvu’s popular book, The Real Estate Game. The book was recommended to me by a family friend while I was in college. Nearly 8 years later, the book still sits on my desk, filled with highlighter and tabs. There's a not a week that goes by where I don't reference it. Sitting above my office desk reads a quote from the book - "Given all the potential investors in the world, why has this fabulous opportunity fallen into my lap?" I was lucky enough to steal Professor Poorvu from his tennis game and chat about the book,...
What are you Wrestling with?
One thing I've learned from working full-time for the past year is that it's very easy to get blinded by your interests. As an active real estate firm, we want to do lots of deals and create strong risk adjusted returns for our investors. However, we shouldn't just do what we're doing without wrestling with anything. We need to be be questioning every assumption. Hands down, due diligence is the single most important aspect of creating strong risk adjusted returns. All risks, benefits, and value drivers of a transaction must be thoroughly understood before capital is committed. As...
Why I’m a Renter
After 3 indescribable years in my Murray Hill apartment, I’ve decided it’s time to move on, to a new neighborhood. While I’m excited to explore a different area of the island, and to start a new chapter of my life in NYC, I’m tasked with the job (and daunting task) of finding a new apartment. With vacancy rates hovering near 1%, finding an apartment in NYC resembles more of a competitive sport than an inevitable part of city living. I’m not alone in this situation. Many of my friends and colleagues who are now in their mid- to upper-20’s are making the move from their frat-style...
I Have a Hunch
I was reading a blog post from legendary Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson and I came across an interesting quote; "Start-ups should be hunch-driven early on and data-driven as they scale". While he was speaking generally about start-ups, I thought this quote tied directly to real estate deals. Today we have more information at our finger tips than we can handle. However, just 30 years ago, investors and developers didn’t have reliable sales and rent comps, population forecasts, business trends, or demographic information. They did deals entirely on a hunch. Successful investors/developers...
Working for a Big Company versus a Small Company
Last week I referenced the interview I did with Dr. Peter Linneman, one of the leading real estate minds. His answers were so insightful, they’re worthy of 3 or 4 blog posts, but there was one more answer that I wanted to highlight. I asked Dr. Linneman for his thoughts on young professionals working for a large company versus a small company. This is something I’ve toiled with a lot, so I found his thoughts particularly welcomed. The comments below are a mix of his answers and my own personal thoughts. Keep in mind that I’m speaking very generally here, each person and company is...
Read Everything
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Peter Linneman for a series the ULI Young Leaders Committee is doing. I don’t want to give away too much of the interview, but there was one response that I wanted to share with you. I asked Dr. Linneman, how can young real estate professionals differentiate themselves in an incredibly competitive marketplace? His response, “read everything. I’m not talking about Wikipedia. In the old days, one would not think you were educated because you had an encyclopedic knowledge as an adult. Read the economist, the WSJ, the Financial Times, and Trade...
My Thoughts on the Single-Family Rental (SFR)
A few weeks ago I published a one-line post: What did you do back when interest rates were the lowest of your lifetime? For an investor and entrepreneur, these are truly unprecedented times, yet few are actually taking advantage of this economic landscape. I hope to look back in 20 years and have a good answer. The greatest opportunity in real estate these days is the emerging real estate segment - the single-family rental. Heck, there was even a story on Planet Money of a 14 year-old Florida girl who purchased her own rental home! From 5 years ago, roughly speaking, housing prices are...
The Streets of Philadelphia
I spent this spring-like afternoon wandering the streets of Philadelphia. Although I grew up in the Philly suburbs, I don’t know the city particularly well. Living in New York City for the past 3 years and studying real estate has given me an appreciation for urban design so aimlessly meandering through city streets has become a new favorite activity. You never know what you’re going to stumble upon; a cool urban park, new ground-up development, historical rehab, or a unique streetscape. This afternoon, just southeast of City Hall, I noticed an interesting automated parking garage concept...
Compstak – A Marketplace for CRE Lease Comps
Throughout my brief career in commercial real estate, I've seen a lot of innovation. From 3D mapping, mobile, and retail tech, to the data space, tech-related start-ups are proliferating. I was lucky enough to be part of a test group for Compstak, a new crowd-sourced database of lease comparables launching in New York City. Compstak is destined to be a game-changer and one of the founders was nice enough to take the time to sit down and answer a few questions. Enter Mike: Like many great start-ups, the idea behind CompStak came to you from an inefficiency you noticed in the market while...
Zell’s Fundamentals (Sam-isms)
Sam Zell is heralded as one of the most successful real estate professionals of his time. However, he doesn't proclaim to have any complicated strategy when it comes to his deals. In fact, if you go to Equity Group Investments website you'll find a page called 'Zell's Fundamentals', a list of 13 brief statements which serve as the basis of his investment decisions. Zell's Fundamentals Rule #1 - Operate on the condition of no surprises Rule #2 -Everyday that you're not selling an asset in your portfolio, you're choosing to buy it Rule #3 - Ensure management's interests are aligned with...
The Question is….
What did you do back when interest rates were the lowest of your lifetime? Make sure you have a good answer for this in twenty years.
One Invests in the Guy behind the Deal, Above All else
Reading the January edition of Bloomberg Magazine, I came across an interesting quote from a segment titled “Advice from Billionaires” When asked “what’s the best advice you’ve received”, one billionaire replied, “good deals are like bus stops; there is one on every corner.” This advice illustrates that the investor is not as interested in the deal as in his dedication to it. One invests in the guy behind the deal, above all else. Working for a real estate owner/operator, I’ve witnessed this a number of times. The fact remains that wealthy individuals have their pick of investments. Many...
Interview – The Urban Village Concept Redefines the Apartment Community
It only takes two things to turn a group of people into a strong community; a shared interested and a way to communicate. Peter Slaugh, the founder of of Su Casa Properties, harnesses this through his Urban Village concept which rethinks how tenants interact within an apartment community. Peter was nice enough to tell me a bit more about the Urban Village concept. Enter Peter: How would you describe Su Casa Properties in one sentence? Su Casa Properties is a multifamily investment platform for High Networth Individuals who look to maximize investment returns with an eye towards social...
The Secret to Sourcing Real Estate Deals
I spent one morning last week at my old stomping grounds, the 10th floor of NYU Schack, where I attended a lively boutique entrepreneurs panel. The panel featured four successful real estate entrepreneurs and the conversation centered around how they got started, how they decided to go out own their own, how they source capital and deals, and opportunities they see in the market. While there were a lot of good takeaways, what really stood out to me was how they went about finding deals. I'm excited to share their secret with you. I know this may be a shocker, but they don't find deals...