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.
Real Estate is an Unsexy Business
For the young people out there who read headlines in the WSJ, NY Times or other publications regarding massive property purchases, recapitalizations of shiny towers and so forth and find it very appealing/sexy, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I work for an owner/operator, which means we run the entire deal process including identifying investment opportunities, capitalizing the acquisition, operating the deal (overseeing 3rd party property management), managing investor relations, and executing our business plan. At a high-level, buying property is an attractive career, but...
Strength in Numbers – The Value of a Lean Team
This is a re-post of a blog I published for Compstak back in September 2014. I thought it was worth sharing because I’ve had a bunch of conversations with aspiring real estate entrepreneurs who have asked me about Atlas’ approach to staffing. I’m on a week-long ski trip out of the country and will try my best to stay off the grid. Have a great week. I work for Atlas Real Estate Partners, an entrepreneurial real estate investment firm based in NYC. Over the past 4 years we’ve acquired 30 properties with a market value of $500M. We have four full-time employees. While our resources are...
Making Career Moves in Real Estate: The Things I Learned Transitioning from a Hedge Fund to a Real Estate Investment Firm
The blog has always been a mix of personal insights and guest posts from guys I think are smart and doing interesting things. Guest posts are great because they provide a perspective that I can’t. For instance, I get a ton of career-related questions, and while I can provide general advice, I haven’t looked for a job in 5+ years! I tap my network to identify friends who can share anecdotes that resonate with people and fill that void. I’m really excited to share today’s guest post from Kevin Vaughan because it perfectly addresses so many of the questions I get on a regular basis. Kevin...
What it’s Really like Working in Real Estate Private Equity
I talk to a lot of aspiring real estate professionals and many of them want to get into real estate private equity. In fact, two of the most highly-trafficked posts on the blog are about navigating the real estate private equity interview process (part I / part II). Real estate private equity is an appealing career path, yet it’s incredibly competitive and often-times misunderstood. One of my good buddies from Tufts has been working in real estate PE for the past 5 years and I asked him to share his story and shed some light on what it’s really like working in real estate private equity....
How to Think Like a Real Estate Professional – The Peter Linneman Bisnow Video Series
I’ve always believed in being transparent with my audience with the goal of exposing you to the best resources and tools the real estate business has to offer. That’s why I’m excited to share my thoughts on Bisnow’s video series with Peter Linneman. If you’ve visited the site over the years, you’d know I have a slightly weird obsession with Peter Linneman. Dr. Linneman has an unmatched ability to take complex topics and distill them in a way that’s easy to comprehend and interesting. He teaches the most challenging aspect of learning the real estate game; how to think like a real estate...
5 Things I Learned from the Blog in 2014 and 5 Goals for 2015
I spent the last week celebrating the New Year with friends and family in sunny South Florida, almost entirely dis-engaged from email and the internet. The time away allowed me to step back, reflect on the past year, and plan for the year ahead. In this post I want to share 5 things I learned from the blog in 2014 and 5 goals for 2015. These are some of my favorite posts to write. It’s a great way to look back on the year and see what worked, what I could have done better, and set goals for the year ahead. 5 Things I Learned in 2014 1. It’s Okay to Not Know it All: This blog has taught...
The Real Estate Business is Evolving. Take Advantage of it!
If you were a real estate professional in the 1970’s and spent the last 40 years asleep, you wouldn’t recognize the real estate business as it is today. Real estate used to be a local business where most of the buildings were owned by families. Personal relationships and asymmetries of information provided massive opportunities for smart real estate professionals who were “in the know”. However, back then there was almost no transparency about rental or leasing activity, sales prices, who was getting loans and at what rates. The only way you knew that information was based on your own...
Real Estate is an Emotional Investment
For the retail investor, private real estate is an emotional investment. Individuals like owning a piece of a physical asset because it’s tangible and easy to understand. They tell their friends about the investment, drive by the building, and engage directly with the operator. Much like a young person owning Apple stock because it’s cool and they love the products, owning real estate says something about the person; they have exclusive access to deals through a close personal relationship, have cash to invest, and they’re savvy investors. For a real estate firm to build trust and turn...
The Real Estate Crowdfunding Investor Checklist
Real estate crowdfunding provides high-net-worth investors with access to institutional-quality private real estate on a deal-by-deal basis that previously was only available through direct personal relationships. This is game-changing! However, how can non-real estate professionals make educated investment decisions in such an opaque and fragmented space? Yeah, real estate crowdfunding platforms are doing some diligence on the deal and sponsor, but their revenue models are predicated on scale, so for them to survive they need to start doing more deals which means loosening their...
Michael Rabin on Launching Fortified Property Group
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday because there's no expectations. It's a time for family, friends, food, wine, and relaxation. Over my past 4 years working at Atlas Real Estate Partners we've closed on 30 deals. While we’ve learned a ton over that time, we still encounter countless issues that every start-up real estate investment firm will face like these 70+ challenges of starting and growing a real estate investment firm. These are the challenges that I’ve experienced first-hand and over time I’m going to use the list as sort of a road-map to help you...
68 Challenges of Starting and Growing a Real Estate Investment Firm. And Counting.
I’ve spent the past 4 years working for a start-up real estate investment firm. When I joined the company in early 2011, the partners had just closed their 2nd deal, had no website, and no office space. Now, 4 years later, the company has done 30 transactions, hired a team, built out our office space, and continuously refined our operations. Through that process, I’ve experienced first-hand the challenges of starting and growing a real estate investment firm. I’ve been using a Google doc to track the challenges we’ve encountered. While this list is by no means exhaustive and many of the...
NeWell: Rethinking Apartment Design
I always tell people that one of the great aspects of the real estate business is that people who can think creatively, do things a bit differently, and have the talent to execute, can be very successful. Over the past 5 years I've been following the work of Alex Hodara, Vin Vomero, and Jeffrey Zucker, a couple of young guys in Boston making moves. From their reality TV show and brokerage business to their fledgling development company, these guys epitomize what's great about the real estate business. Every time I catch up with these guys they seem to be working on something new and...
The Reality of Doing “Deals on the Side”
“I’ll do a few side deals and when I have enough cash flow to sustain myself, I’ll go off on my own full time”. How many times have you heard this? While doing deals on the side is great in theory, the execution is significantly more challenging than most people can imagine. Successfully acquiring and managing real estate is a full-time job. When you’re doing your first few deals you have more at risk; you’re signing full recourse on the debt, managing investors’ money (likely friends and family), and the deals are critical to building your track record. While doing side deals is tough,...
CrowdStreet – Investing in Real Estate Simply
The real estate community can't seem to get enough of real estate crowdfunding; endless media coverage, conferences, and general chatter professionals. It's all for good reason, crowdfunding is going to disrupt both the equity and debt sides of the business. I caught up with Darren Powderly, founder of CrowdStreet, a leading real estate equity crowdfunding platform. Darren is in the trenches everyday which makes him the perfect person to provide a simple overview of real estate crowdfunding today, and discuss the challenges, opportunities, and where it's going in the future. Take it away...
BLDG a Start-Up
What makes real estate such an interesting and unique career is that it’s filled with aspiring entrepreneurs who have an obsession with the business. While almost everyone wants to do their own deals, running a start-up is tough, there are countless obstacles. That’s why I love interviewing groups that are just on the verge of launching and growing their company. Adam Dunn and Tripp Bell are the founders of BLDG, a real estate investment firm acquiring multifamily properties in the Raleigh-Durham submarket. They’re in the trenches grinding it out 24/7 which makes it the perfect time to...
Take a Breather – Private Office Space When You Need It
One of my favorite aspects of the real estate business is the continued innovation in how physical space is used. Technological advances have allowed these innovations to scale and opened up a plethora of other opportunities to disrupt the traditionally stodgy real estate business. A few weeks ago Atlas was transitioning to a new office so I spent a couple days working out of my apartment. Working remotely typically isn’t a problem, in fact working on my time in locations of my choosing is often how I’m most productive. I was sitting on my back patio one morning when I got a call from an...
The Psychology behind Selling Real Estate
Over the past few months, I’ve been involved in the disposition of a number of assets. Throughout the process, we’ve tested a variety of strategies and I wanted to share a few insights into what’s worked and what hasn’t. While this doesn’t apply to every asset class or market, these are things every seller should consider. Broker Mass Marketing The traditional model of engaging a big-named brokerage to an exclusive marketing agreement still seems to be the most common practice. The brokerage will put together a fancy OM loaded with photos and market information that no one will read,...
The Increasing Importance of Property Operations
I talk to a lot of students and aspiring real estate professionals and the vast majority want to be deal guys. They want to be the rainmakers working in acquisitions, wheeling and dealing. While acquisitions is sexy, it’s becoming increasingly important to be a good at operations. As part of a lean team, I’m involved in all aspects of the business from sourcing and closing deals, to executing the business plan. While you can still win on the buy through information asymmetry’s or fortuitous timing, I experience first-hand how deals can achieve out-sized returns based on great onsite...
Things on My Mind – Vacation Edition
I've been on vacation with friends and family for past week, relatively removed from the never-ending flow of emails and meetings that consume a majority of my day. Although vacation is great, the reality of real estate is that it’s a relationship intensive business. You often times can’t completely disengage. However, I’m always amazed at how the time outside the office spurs the creative juices and allows valuable time to step back, look at the big picture, and focus on the work that matters. While I've been relaxing, I've also had a lot on my mind lately. All of these are probably...
Cardinal Group – Embracing Creativity and Passion
I’ve been spending a lot of my time recently thinking about entrepreneurship. What I’m beginning to realize is that it’s challenging, maybe impossible, to understand what it’s like to be an entrepreneur without confronting the fear and saying to the world, “I made this”. However, the next best thing is to share someone else’s story. Today, I’m excited to welcome Del de Windt of the Cardinal Group, a creative entrepreneur who’s challenging the status quo. What I love about Del’s story is that it resonates with me and provides the confidence to stand up and try to make things change. Enter...