This Accountant Built a 33,000-Unit Empire | Jeff Gleiberman | MG Properties | No Vacancy Podcast

**No Vacancy with Taylor Avakian**

**Episode: This Accountant Built a 33,000-Unit Empire | Jeff Gleiberman | MG Properties**

**Guests:** Jeff Gleiberman, President of MG Properties

**Host:** Taylor Avakian

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[00:00] **Taylor Avakian:** Welcome back to No Vacancy, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of commercial real estate, particularly here in LA multifamily. Today, we have an absolute titan in the industry joining us. We're pulling back the curtain on one of the most successful multifamily investment firms in the country. Jeff Gleiberman, President of MG Properties, is here. Jeff, it's a pleasure to have you on the show.

[00:15] **Jeff Gleiberman:** Taylor, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:17] **Taylor Avakian:** Jeff, MG Properties manages over 33,000 units and transacts billions annually. It's an incredible scale. Before we dive into the "how," let's just briefly set the stage. What does MG Properties look like today, in terms of sheer size and scope?

[00:35] **Jeff Gleiberman:** Well, as you mentioned, we're managing about 33,000 units across six states. We're primarily focused on the Western US, but we've recently expanded into Texas and Boston. We've got about 1,000 employees, all in-house, which is a big part of our story. We're vertically integrated, managing everything from acquisitions to asset management, property management, construction, and even our own legal team. It's been a journey, starting from very humble beginnings, but that integrated approach has really been our secret sauce.

[01:05] **Taylor Avakian:** That's an incredible journey. For our listeners who might not be familiar with the full history, can you give us a quick overview of how MG Properties started and how it grew from, I believe, just four units to this massive 33,000-unit empire?

[01:20] **Jeff Gleiberman:** Absolutely. Our founder, Mark Gleiberman, my brother, started the company in 1992. He was actually an accountant, and he bought his first four-unit building in San Diego. He quickly realized the power of multifamily real estate and the ability to scale. From there, it was a very disciplined, incremental growth. We focused on value-add strategies, buying properties that needed some love, improving them, and holding them for the long term. We were always reinvesting our capital and slowly building our team and capabilities in-house. That vertical integration really began early on, as we realized that controlling the entire process led to better outcomes and allowed us to execute our business plans more effectively.

[02:00] **Taylor Avakian:** That vertical integration is something you emphasize, and it's clearly been a cornerstone of your success. Can you elaborate on why keeping everything in-house – from acquisitions to property management – is so crucial for MG Properties, especially at your scale?

[02:15] **Jeff Gleiberman:** It's absolutely critical. When you have your own property management team, your own construction team, your own accounting and legal, you have complete control over the execution of your business plan. We can react quickly to market changes, implement our value-add strategies efficiently, and maintain a consistent brand and resident experience across our entire portfolio. It also allows for better cost control and efficiency. Our property managers are incentivized directly by the performance of the assets, aligning their goals with our investors. It's a huge competitive advantage, especially when you're managing thousands of units.

[02:50] **Taylor Avakian:** That makes perfect sense. Let's talk about capital. You mentioned managing billions. How do you balance private high-net-worth syndications with institutional joint ventures? What are the pros and cons of each for MG Properties?

[03:05] **Jeff Gleiberman:** That's a great question, and it's evolved over time. Historically, we grew primarily through private high-net-worth syndications. This allowed us to be very nimble, make quick decisions, and maintain complete control over our assets. The downside is that it can be slower to raise large amounts of capital for bigger deals. As we scaled, we started partnering with institutional investors through joint ventures. This opened the door to larger transactions and allowed us to grow much faster.