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.
10 Tax Questions For Real Estate Crowdfunding Investors
Over the past few months, I've been spending a lot of time helping investors navigate the world of passive real estate investing. While it's critically important to avoid bad deals, understand the return metrics, and identify great opportunities, there are other implications such as 'Taxes' which investors must be aware of and can have a great impact on an investment. In this post, Paul Sundin, a tax strategist who works with clients all over the world on real estate, syndication, and crowdfunding, answers 10 tax questions for real estate crowdfunding investors. The tax implications of...
We Cannot Predict the Future, We can Only Prepare
I was on a real estate entrepreneurship panel at NYU Schack last week and was asked, "what can real estate companies do to prepare for a potential market correction?" While the real estate market has had a nice run over the past 6 years, there looms concern over rising interest rates, increased construction, and an over-supply of capital chasing too few deals. At Atlas, our new deal pipeline is slower today than it’s been over the previous 5 years. This slowdown has allowed us to step back and analyze our portfolio on a deal-by-deal basis. While we are not market prognosticators, we like...
Drones for Real Estate Use is Taking Off
Everywhere you look, you hear about how drones are being utilized in the real estate and construction industries. Over the summer, my brother-in-law and I played around with a drone (he flew, I watched), capturing aerial footage of the Jersey Shore, action water sports of siblings and cousins, and testing out the best way to shoot real estate sites. Drones have become mainstream and while some real estate firms view their use of drones as innovative today, it’ll simply be the status quo within the next few years. Drones are relatively cheap and easy to fly and the gimbal combined with...
Returns Metrics that Matter When Underwriting a Potential Real Estate Investment
Over the past few months I’ve shared various checklists to help you avoid bad deals and sift out the quality deals and quality operators. One of the critical aspects to evaluating a deal is understanding what the investment return metrics mean for your investment, running return sensitivities, and assessing if the return is commensurate with the level of risk you’re comfortable taking on. There are a few key metrics which investors should be familiar with including cap rates, cash-on-cash return, equity multiple, and the internal rate of return. For the sake of this post, let’s assume...
10 Telltale Signs You Should Avoid a Deal
The other day I was talking to a seasoned investor who’s actively reviewing deals on the various crowdfunding platforms. He was digging into a single-family fix & flip investment on one of the well-known platforms and wanted to learn more about the operator. A simple Google search revealed that the operator was recently indicted for visa fraud and money laundering. He reached out to the platform and the deal was quickly removed. This a group that was approved by the platform which presumably had done their diligence on the deal and operator. This is really scary and one of my major...
Top 10 Steps When Reviewing A Passive Real Estate Investment Opportunity
Prior to the JOBS Act, accredited investors had to have personal relationships with real estate operators in order to access direct real estate investments. Now, through real estate crowdfunding portals, anyone can invest passively into institutional quality real estate deals. While the access to deals is great, I’m concerned many platforms are doing a poor job of screening deals/operators. It’s up to investors to do their own diligence prior to investing into a syndication. Real estate investors need to be aware of the risks of investing in private real estate deals. I’ve create a real...
How to Thrive at a Boutique Real Estate Shop
If you sign up for the ASotREG mailing list, the first email you get from me asks, “If I could write one real estate-related thing to make your day better, what would it be?” I get a ton of great responses, which often serve inspiration for new blog content. A recent subscriber wrote back saying, “I also work for a smaller/entrepreneurial RE firm and was one of the first several employees brought into the company. Do you have any advice/suggestions on how an associate can make the biggest impact at a smaller firm?” This is something I deal with every day. Working for an entrepreneurial...
Scott Scharlach on Launching a Value-Focused Retail Investment Firm
I love interviewing real estate entrepreneurs who’ve recently launched their company. They're passionate, energetic, and full of actionable advice. In my latest investor spotlight, I chat with Scott Scharlach of Progression REI. Scott’s story is similar to many of the entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed in the past (you can view all investor spotlights here). His institutional background, reputation, creativity, and passion for real estate has enabled him and his partner to execute their first 3 deals and go under contract on their 4th, a $33M retail deal. Learn how Scott went from an office...
My Take on Tom Barrack’s 15 Rules for Success
The real estate community is filled with successful investors and developers who are viewed as celebrities such as Howard Marks, Sam Zell, Mort Zuckerman, and Stephen Ross. They’re known for their big investment successes, pontificating, and the wisdom they pass along to the real estate community. Sam Zell has the Zell’s Fundamentals, a list of 13 statements which serve as the basis for his investment decisions. Tom Barrack, CEO and Chairmen of Colony Capital, has his own set of 15 rules for success. Although they’re not real estate-specific, many resonate with me and apply to my...
Why I’m Concerned About Real Estate Crowdfunding
Real estate crowdfunding is disrupting real estate finance by moving real estate capital raising online and making it open to everyone, thus disintermediating the middlemen. While I’m a huge advocate of real estate crowdfunding, (having said that) I’m really concerned about the space in the near-term. Financial technology (fintech) start-ups are hot and it’s relatively easy to raise capital. However, we are in a high valuation environment for quick growth fintech companies due to the low interest rate environment, availability of capital, and the attractiveness of the fintech space. Real...
ASotREG Interview: Dr. Peter Linneman on Real Estate Careers
Last week I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Peter Linneman for the blog. For the few who may not be familiar with Dr. Linneman, he is one of the top minds in the real estate business. He has a unique perspective grounded in both the academic and professional world. He’s the Chairmen of the Wharton Real Estate Program, on the board of a number of public real estate companies, and founder of Linneman Associates, a premier real estate consulting and research firm. I reference Peter’s work a lot on the blog; his textbook Real Estate Finance & Investments is one of the best resources for...
Arx Urban – A New Generation of Real Estate
As I advance in my real estate career, I’m beginning to see buddies leave their institutional shop to launch their own venture. A good friend of mine, Benjie Moll, recently founded Arx Urban, an innovative real estate investment firm. I’ve known Benjie for a while now; we went to college together, we were colleagues for a summer at Atlas, and now he’s a partner in a number of deals. We’ve become good buddies over time and have a shared passion for innovation and technology in real estate. He’s also been a great supporter of the blog. I give him a lot of credit for taking the leap and...
10 Questions Crowdfunding Investors Should Ask Before Investing
Real estate crowdfunding regulation has brought the world of private real estate online and opened it up to everyone. While this fragmented investment space is slowly becoming more transparent, it’s still challenging for non-real estate professionals to make informed investment decisions. In an earlier post I shared my real estate crowdfunding investor checklist, highlighting the important aspects of a deal investors should be aware of such as return sensitivities, terms of deal, economic structure, tax implications etc. While the intricacies, structure, and term of the investment are...
How I Build and Maintain my Real Estate Network
A lot of people ask me for my best advice on networking. My response is simple; find ways to help others without expecting anything in return. There’s a saying that the fastest way to make a billion dollars is to help a billion people (or something like that). While helping other people is critical, it’s also important to put systems in place to cultivate your network. Today I want to talk about how I stay in touch with my network. This is not a real estate-specific post, rather general advice on networking in a real estate context. Often times, merely staying in touch and top of mind...
John Drachman on Launching Stillwater Investment Group
When I started this blog in January 2009, a big focus was providing reviews on the various graduate real estate programs. I’d message recent grads through LinkedIn and ask them if they were willing to share insights into their experience. Most were receptive because there was so little information out there. One of the first guys I connected with was John Drachman. John was running his own popular real estate blog, ‘The Daily Drach’ where he shared his opinion on the CRE market. He was a recent grad of the USC Master in Real Estate Development program and in October 2009, I published his...
My Top 5 Tools for Real Estate Job Seekers
One of the unexpected benefits of writing the blog has been connecting with old friends over our shared passion for real estate. A few years back I reconnected with a buddy from high school I hadn’t spoken with in years. He was searching for a new job in real estate and reached out to chat. He landed a great job at a top-notch firm and we’ve stayed in constant contact ever since. I was so impressed with how he successfully navigated the job search and the way that he carried himself, I asked him to share his top tools/tips for real estate job-seekers. Enjoy. Introduction I am 26-year-old...
9 Ways Real Estate Sponsors Can Build Trust with Investors
The emergence of real estate crowdfunding (online syndication as I like to call it) has completely altered the way real estate sponsors need to conduct business. No longer is capital raised from a closed group of friends & family investors, private real estate deals are now open to all accredited investors and soon anyone with an internet connection. This Titanic shift creates a massive opportunity for best-in-class real estate sponsors with strong track records, access to quality deals, and a history of execution, to scale their investor base through crowdfunding. However, success in...
The 5 Minute Deal Screening Checklist
In my role as the VP of Acquisitions, a lot of deals come across my desk. However, 9 out of 10 aren’t worth looking at. If I couldn’t sift through those deals efficiently I wouldn’t get anything done. A frequent question I get from aspiring real estate entrepreneurs is how do you quickly screen deals and avoid wasting valuable time analyzing deals that are over-priced. While I’m by no means great at it and it takes repetition and strict investment focus to hone the skill, I put together a scratch deal screening checklist which can serve as a good starting point: 1. Did the deal come from...
Top 100 Commercial Real Estate Company Websites
When working on the redesign of the Atlas Real Estate Partners website, I personally reviewed 1,000’s of real estate company sites and pulled elements from what I thought to be the best in terms of design, functionality, innovation, and branding. Through this process I learned that real estate firms generally don’t care about branding and it’s apparent in their company web design and general online presence. However, there are a number of firms who are pushing the envelope, learning from their counterparts in more innovative niches, and understand the importance of creating a strong brand...
The Power of the Real Estate Checklist
A few months back I listened to a great book called The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande which completely changed the way I work. Gawande, a surgeon by trade, provides a series of examples from medicine showing how the routine tasks of surgeons have become so incredibly complicated that mistakes are virtually inevitable. It’s too easy, for even the most talented doctor, to miss a step, or forget to ask a key question, while under immense stress. Gawande shows how checklists, literally written guides that walk them through the key steps in any complex procedure, can be the difference...