Key Takeaways from Real Estate Conference

Last week, I, Jonathan, had the opportunity to attend a great twitter Real Estate conference in Los Angeles. I got to meet investors from all over the country and in almost every asset class. I even got to meet some passive investors and one involved in one of our deals. It was just so cool to meet people I had interacted with online for so long. It opened my eyes to how to think of our business, potential collaborations, and what other asset classes have to offer. It was just an all-around good time talking about all this real estate stuff that we love.  

It's Ok to have more than one

We have been struggling to find anything that makes sense in multi-family. During the conference, Chris Powers explained his pivot from multi five years ago. He saw the same thing with B class multi in DFW and started looking at B class industrial. Things started taking off for them when they began putting offers on industrial. Things took off so much that they completely stopped going after multi and became an industrial shop strictly. They currently own and manage now $587 million, primarily in industrial in Texas.

We are at the point where we need to determine if we should transition into something else or if we should stick with apartments. Hearing what Chris went through and learning about the firm's incredible success, I feel we owe ourselves to explore what else might be out there for us. Thus, some other asset classes we are studying are storage and industrial. 

At the same time, we are sure to collaborate with others to make sure we are successful at it. Suppose we decide to go down one of those routes. If one takes off, we will focus on that and pour gas on it, full speed ahead. It's ok to explore, but we will be focused and become true professionals at whatever we do, including apartments.  

The Abundance Mentality

I am speaking of abundance in two ways. First, there are plenty of deals to go around for everyone, and two, sharing that knowledge with others has more upsides than downsides. Some people may think putting out too much information about how you do things will breed competition. Though there is some truth to that, in reality, it may attract passive investors by giving them an inside look, and it could also allow people to bring you deals. If everyone knows what you're looking for, the higher probability that you will get in front of potential deals. This is a big reason why I'm active on Twitter and write our blogs.

Collaboration  

We are all working hard in our respective ventures. Sometimes it does make sense to team up to take down deals we alone wouldn't otherwise be able to tackle. Maybe someone has more access to deals and another more access to capital. It could just be a specific skill set and experience. 

I had tons of conversations at a conference where I felt I could see some future partners. If not, at the very least, they can be people I could bounce ideas off of. I also think that everyone has varying degrees of luck if combined can push growth. There is a lot of power in combining everyone's strengths/luck for tremendous success.

So many ways to slice and dice the deals

The conference opened my eyes to many ways to structure your business. The way you structure your business has a lot to do with personality, asset class, or market. That there is no wrong or right way to do it. For example, some people want to grow huge companies and others just want do a handful of good deals a year. Your strategy will depend on your firms' goals and potential investors. Everyone has varying degrees of risk tolerance and return metrics.

Ultimately the results from the conference gave me a renewed sense of clarity, energy, and drive to grow. I believe some of these relationships will help us grow to new levels we wouldn't have otherwise. First, it was just so much freakin' fun. And, it provided me with a mindset shift on how I look at things. It also validated what I thought already. Finally, it reinforced the need to identify a niche that will allow doubling down and focus.  Ultimately how we can best achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns for us and our investors.