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Why I love re-trades

Friday, May 22

Re-trading terms on an agreement at the closing table is one of the worst behaviors that happens in the real estate industry. A deal party, like a buyer or lender, will propose a deal that they will get “pregnant” , which means both sides have agreed to work toward consummating the deal. Saying y...


Potential Deal Killer: Failed Environmental Report

Thursday, May 14

Growing up in Northern New Jersey, especially in that upper right quadrant of the state, is essentially growing up in the suburbs of New York City. I grew up there in the1990s, which meant a couple of things: First, ecommerce was still in its infancy. People still bought 99.99% of goods at phys...


Potential Deal Killer: Inspection reveals deferred maintenance

Friday, May 01

Commercial real estate acquisitions are modeled on spreadsheets or in fancy valuation software, often by analysts who have likely never had to hammer a nail a wall. That’s fine. Commercial buildings exist because some developer planned for them financially, and could rely on other investors who...


The 80% LTV Multifamily Loan is Dead

Monday, March 30

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have altered their underwriting guidelines for stabilized multifamily loans. In the process, they’ve killed the 80% LTV loan. OK, not officially. Here is the newest maximum leverage breakdown for Freddie Mac: Yes, 80% LTV is still on there for “Top Markets” and “Standa...


Understanding IRR vs Cash on Cash Return

Wednesday, March 11

There are a handful of popular return metrics for commercial real estate investment. You have Equity Multiple, expressed as a ratio, that tells you how much money you’ll end up with compared to how much you started with. So an equity multiple of “2.5x” would mean you get $2.50 out by putting $1.0...


The Ladder of Credibility for real estate developers

Monday, November 04

As a startup founder, I read and listen to a lot of tech and business material, and my reading recently took me through a couple of NFX’s blog posts. NFX is an early stage venture capital firm that specializes in betting on tech-enabled marketplace startups that can take advantage of network effe...