Thoughts on Underwriting Fundamentals
Monday, September 10
Underwriting is one of the most important aspects of multifamily investing. Proper, conservative underwriting can save an investor from jeopardizing their retirement or career.Warren Buffet's "margin for error" - Buffet often explains the key to making a smart investment is to ensure the investme...
August 4, 2018: Cap Rates & Sales Volumes
Tuesday, August 07
One of the troubles I predicted would characterize the 2018 CRE markets is the bid/ask gap widening between sellers and buyers. Sellers are finding that prices aren't rising as quickly as they have over the last five to ten years and thus are finding it difficult to sell at their previously under...
Multifamily Value in Secondary Markets like Houston
Saturday, April 21
Today I read a great article from one of my favorite real estate news sources, NREI, about the general state of the multifamily market as well as where the most value can be found in the US. It is widely acknowledged that new supply has been hitting the multifamily space hard over the last few ye...
Loss to Lease: What is it? How do you analyze it?
Wednesday, April 18
In commercial real estate, a loss to lease refers to a unit being rented for below market value. For example, if there is an apartment community renting two bedrooms for $1,000 per month yet a tenant who has been there for quite a while is only paying $800, then this unit has a $200 dollar loss t...
Dock Your Money Boat in the IRS' De Minimis Safe Harbor
Tuesday, December 26
In the IRS tax code, there is a hugely powerful tool called ‘De minimis safe harbor election’. You may not have heard of this unless you read the tax code for fun. However, we are talking about it today because the IRS recently revised the de minimis safe harbor election rules in 2016. You can re...
LLCs and Asset Protection
Friday, December 01
LLCs are a hot topic among real estate investors. Many people who want to start out think the first thing they need to do is to create an LLC, me included. In reality, an LLC is not a necessity for all investors and isn’t the magical asset protection device many believe it to be. For a first time...