DONE with Los Angeles Real Estate: Hollywood Writer Turned Real Estate Leader Eddie Ring
With Eddie Ring — Founder & CEO, New Standard Equities
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In this episode of No Vacancy, host Taylor Avakian sits down with Eddie Ring, founder and CEO of New Standard Equities, to dig deep into the strategies shaping the Los Angeles multifamily market.
In this episode of No Vacancy, host Taylor Avakian sits down with Eddie Ring, founder and CEO of New Standard Equities, to dig deep into the strategies shaping the Los Angeles multifamily market. With over 25 years of real estate experience, Eddie shares his unique insights on why he’s stepping back from LA investments, the key trends impacting apartment ownership, and what investors should be paying attention to as market conditions shift.
Whether you’re a seasoned property owner or looking to make your first investment in multifamily real estate, this conversation covers the essentials for understanding LA's evolving landscape. Eddie discusses the challenges posed by local regulations, rent control, and the rising cost of doing business in Southern California. Plus, he sheds light on emerging opportunities and shares his perspective on where the smart money is going in today’s multifamily sector.
Tune in for actionable insights on:
The pros and cons of investing in LA apartments today
Key indicators of market shifts and how to adapt your strategy
Navigating rent control and other regulatory challenges
How to identify high-potential properties and build a resilient portfolio
Don’t miss this valuable episode for an insider’s perspective on the trends and strategies that will shape the future of multifamily real estate in Los Angeles.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction to Eddie Ring & His Real Estate Journey
02:00 - Why Eddie Left LA’s Real Estate Market
04:50 - Dealing with LA Housing Department (LAHD) Challenges
06:45 - Navigating Rent Control & Government Regulations
10:30 - Eddie’s Tips on Identifying Multifamily Property Gems
14:50 - Why Relationships Matter in Real Estate
17:30 - From Comedy Writer to Real Estate CEO: Eddie’s Career Pivot
22:15 - Early Deals & Mentorship at Kennedy Wilson
29:45 - Avoiding Overpaying for Multifamily Properties
34:00 - Lessons from Industry Legends: Focus on What You Know
37:45 - Strategy for New Investors in Today’s Market
43:30 - Why Eddie Stays Out of Certain Markets & Focuses on LA
48:15 - How Social Media Impacts Real Estate Investment Firms
50:30 - Is the Market Rebounding? Eddie’s 2024 Forecast
53:00 - Wrapping Up: The Importance of Partnerships in Real Estate
This episode is brought to you by Henry AI (https://hubs.ly/Q02ShzRW0).
Henry is the first AI copilot built specifically for commercial real estate brokers. Henry automates the entire deal deck creation process for OMs and BOVs helping brokers win more deals without doing more work. Henry builds every slide including the market summary, executive summary, comps analysis, aerial markups, and even abstracts leases. Sign up for Henry today at https://hubs.ly/Q02ShzRW0
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why don't you own Los Angeles anymore and what made you leave the biggest issue I've had with Los Angeles is dealing with LD which is the housing department we don't want the government telling us what is and isn't affordable La is the least affordable City in the entire country I left the comedy writing world and uh went back and got my MBA ecla wants to be the guy from out of state buying up all the local real estate that nobody with touch instead ask yourself what did they see that we missed welcome to
No Vacancy where I share conversations with LA's top multif family owners investors and Visionaries I'm your host Taylor ven the founder of the group SI and I specialize in the sale of apartment buildings in Los Angeles on this show we cut straight to what matters Market insights and real world strategies straight from LA's multif family icons to help you navigate one of the most complex real estate markets in the world Southern California enjoy my guest today is Eddie ring Eddie founded New Standard equities in 2010 serves as chief executive officer with over 25 years of real estate and financial consulting experience and 20 plus years of dedicated investing and operating experience in the multif family sector he oversees nse's investment strategy operations risk management and in investor relationships under Eddie's leadership nsec has
become known as a leading real estate investment and asset management firm for wty Family Properties located in the Western United States Eddie thank you to the show hey thanks a lot thanks for having me apprciate it absolutely so um I'm very excited to have you on because I think from conversations with some friends of mine they said you have some very strong opinions which I'm excited to kind of dig into today um I think the one people and people who are familiar with Southern California would love
to know and talk about why don't you own Los Angeles anymore and what made you leave that's a great question um and it's one that um I've actually you know my my hard and fast rules are bent when I start to see things that are super interesting coming out even here in La um so the the biggest issue I've had with Los Angeles um with is dealing with LD which is the housing department and I just found that it was so so challenging um and so anti- landlord uh that it made running small properties which is really what you're seeing in most of Los Angeles made it really really challenging um however Los Angeles is a thriving you know megalopolis a a world leader of you
know thought culture you know economy you know it's it's literally how how could you possibly ignore such a powerful sort of economically vibrant area and you know some some very very sophisticated investors are U reexamining their hypothesis that hey we should stay out of Los Angeles um and I think the better move might be even for myself to say you know let's tiptoe in Los Angeles let's make sure we're underwriting the politics and under writing what could happen or couldn't happen and you know take a look and see if we can't find a you know a gem needs to be uh you know invested in you know I in fact just yesterday I got an email from a a friend who told me about a property that a another big investor is actually selling they're going to be selling at a
huge loss because their uh their mandate is to exit Los Angeles yeah wow and so here it is you know 120 unit building or something like Hollywood Hills that they're going to take a $5 million loss on it's like well I'd like to underwrite that Mak I was maybe it works you know especially if you can get it at a $15 million discount to where they paid you know three years ago where the basis
it is today so tell me what as you mentioned potentially dipping your toe in Los Angeles what are the gems that you look for what are the attributes of a property that for a new standard
is like this is what we want to Target yeah so it would be uh if we could find something newer that wasn't you didn't slide into the uh you know La rent control that would obviously be the best but barring that it has to have some size so 100 plus units it has to you know kind of cater to a a strong Workforce demographic you know not not C quality real estate um but not necessarily luxury either so it has to it has to kind of fit in that b category and super well located so you're talking about you know Hollywood you know the west side if you can find anything of scale that have hasn't been picked over it's very rare but so why is non rank control preferred and then why is location such a big driver for you guys yeah so the non-rent control piece um
we want to be able to charge the rent that is Affordable for folks is we're not getting into that luxury space but we don't want the government telling us what is and isn't affordable uh we have that now at the state level so we we know that you know at the state level we can only raise rents you know CA at you know whatever it is you know 10% yeah 10% basically so um but that we can kind of live with um what is uh would be a lot more challenging to deal with would be the uh vacancy control like right now we have vacancy de control yeah so you know apartment you know resident moves out that unit could go to market uh that's you know a state law yeah and of course it's a proposition 33 today so make sure all you're make sure everybody votes
no yeah it's hug um it's huge once again that is being raised by the same group that did the last two times and it'll probably get defeated if we all you know vote and support the you know the anti anti- 33 measure as long as we have that vacancy de control we can navigate rent control it's fine because at the worst the worst case scenario is they don't move out you get your you know you get your four five% bump or whatever it is you're also not pouring a ton of money into the unit so unfortunately rent control as everybody knows it creates sort of some really tough living conditions for people um but navigable uh depending on the asset which again this is also um an area and you ask what we would look for so it would be one where the residents have been
turning over it would be an an asset that is slightly higher level than like I said no C's and you know and B minuses and really trying to get to a decent quality resident you know demographic make sure that there isn't that level of embedded you know renter now at the same time if a seller is willing to sell with our assumption that you know instead of a rollover rate of like 30% it's just typical of a rent control building if it's a roll over rate of 10% or something you know something really really light well as long as I can underwrite that that same rollover rate and still make money for our investors then you know I'm I I we can do it
so what are the so obviously investors I think people anyone who does syndication and or raises money or capital for these Investments using other people's money LP Investments right you have to cater to what your investors want to invest in point because they're the ones bringing the money yes so have you did you figure out your strategy and then go find the LPS to fit your strategy because you were confident in that and you're what what you felt good in or was it the other way around where you found the LPS and their strategy wanted to be this and you're like okay let me get really good at exactly what they're looking to do and keep these relationships long term
I wish it was that scientific um here's my philosophy and here's what I did when I first started my company um I had you know a nice background from my time at Kennedy Wilson um I I learned how why and what investors were looking for mostly institutional investors while I was at that at that shop um and when I started my own company in 2010 I I had a you know kind of this thought in my head that I never wanted to put investors money at risk for my own ignorance which means I you know while everybody told me that I should go invest in Las Vegas I was like well been to Las Vegas plenty of times but never as an investor you know or Phoenix lost money in Vegas yeah exact well yeah not only that piece but also like I
don't know like there's somebody that knows Phoenix Arizona better than I do lots of people do you know I but I don't so I was like I don't want to what am I going to put somebody else's money in a market that I have no idea what I'm doing so I kind of took that approach and I said well I know California I know Southern cic the back of my hand I know La I know Ventura County Riverside County San Diego obviously um and um and Northern Cal all the counties up there uh from time Ken from my time in Kennedy Wilson um and then all of uh Portland and um and Seattle Greater Seattle I'm not a real core MSA kind
of guy so I don't own anything I don't think I've ever actually purchased anything in Seattle proper um and likewise City of La yeah yes but I'm not a super downtown core kind of guy yeah um San Francisco no um um and so you know I've always sort of avoided those you know kind of core MSA locations but my experience has been if you take your investment philosophy and go one or two rings out from the Central Downtown MSA core you find a lot of that um Suburban product or um you know you can even still get elevator you know whatever buildings but it's got that um it's got a feel to it that is a little bit more accessible for uh Workforce
in know renters and you know those are renters by necessity um they're not luxury renters I don't want to be competing with homes um and uh you know renters by necessity like that is what they're doing they can't afford a house uh the median home price is way too high here in California and they're not making enough money that's just what the what the math is uh and then likewise I'm not a I can't run a property you know I can't be a slum Lord I'm not I'm not doing the turn off the heat kind of thing you know that's not that's just not me I people have to have a you know a comfortable place to live that brings respect and dignity to their their family and um you know and and we treat our residents right and uh
know tell me tell me about that moment yeah it's an interesting time so um I went through a few different career you know kind of modifications since uh yeah I don't know if you can tell but I'm getting up there um about that yeah anyway so um uh when I uh I was a career changer I was a comedy writer as I've told you um I wrote sitcoms I wrote television shows believe it or not um which seems like the complete opposite of real very opposite um it's I'm not sure which is funnier I know at least in TV we had a laugh track we make pretend that what I wrote was funny um but anyway um but so I I left the comedy writing world and uh went back and got my MBA ecla and um joined Kennedy Wilson and and started you know kind of uh
learning the real estate space um and how old were you at this time that was like I was in my young 30s okay so you had been comedy all throughout your 20 was yeah I was basically I went to film school first out of undergrad after undergrad um and so I did that for you know I wrote I wrote sitcoms for about five years wow yeah you know I was gainfully employed in the sitcom writing World which is I mean even to get in there like I think um I I like to look at patterns and like what what people just you can look back history is
my favorite subject and you can look back and kind of see patterns of what people were doing or how they held themselves or just just the way that they actually executed on things like it's hard to get a writing job in general right so the fact that you're able to do that in your 20s and have success in that I think leaves Clues into maybe some some superpowers that you have in terms of being able to kind of either execute on a given task or be able to get yourself in the right room and meet the right people that you need to which I know raising Capital we're going to talk about too but it's it seems like for you your ability to and correct me if I'm wrong but your ability to meet the right people and get in the right rooms has really led to where
you are today or a big interesting it's an interesting I didn't really think about it like that but um yeah when I first started in the um in the television business it was exactly like that I we my I had a writing partner and uh and we we kind of get on these shows and we would stay late and hide out in offices and you know become friends with the writers and you know we were you know and then of course we were writing script after script it took years and we wrote I don't know dozens of scripts and then um you know eventually we were able to you know get our stuff to to an agent that believed in us and we you know we started finding work which was uh you know yeah you're right it was it
was challenging it does um relate to relationships though and that in and of itself is exactly what the real estate space is um and so I think that what you're saying is kind of interesting because in the entertainment space you there's an old adage it's who you know um but what I found in the entertainment space it's it is who you know but you never know who you're supposed to know so you have to know everybody and so if you're in a world where you have to know everybody that means you're going to a lot of false relationships and so uh that's a lot of glad handing and you know hey you know LA Guns thing right and so that piece of it really didn't fit well with me got it it it's that that falsity that I couldn't stand not not that I
didn't execute on that sure but it was that oh my gosh I got to go to another guy's house where I have to pretend like you know he's my bestie and that one's my you know it's like oh my God muching smoing yeah just the endless amount of like hey we got to be in the right place at the right time and the right you know everybody know the person know that it's like oh my gosh exhausting exhausting and unrelated to your talent yeah and that was really challenging yeah that's frustrating when I um when I left that business and uh got into uh real estate um I found it to be yes a people oriented business but the people that I were was meeting were like genuine Rel relationships so I met a lot of I have a lot of really good friends that are
in the real estate space and we could talk about anything and we could talk about what's going on you know in in you know in the world and families and you know the challenges we face and and all of a sudden it's like real connection and as long as I'm having a real connection with somebody and I can be I can be you know myself which is fairly genuine type person I don't have this overriding pressure to go out and meet everybody yeah you know it's a much more nuanced kind of thing when you talk about it's all about the people it it is about the people but these relationships are much more uh sacran in in real estate
was there a relationship that you can think back to that was either a catalyst or a big moment in your career from a real estate perspective was there a chance encounter or a meeting or a dinner or a you know conference that you can think back to and be like wow and met that person things took a different turn
yeah I mean I can yeah I mean and people who know me know my story um at Kennedy Wilson um I um I met I had the fortune of working for Bob Hart um who's tremendous guy and a great you know great figure in this industry and he taught me everything that I know really and um it was wasn't so much as a it was as a mentor you know kind of thing but I genuinely like Bob he's a very good person and smart and you know and all that and so we um we actually actually met him while I was at UCLA and he happened to be the uh president of the uh UCLA uh real estate Alumni Association whatever they bu young I don't remember what no no not the real whatever it was like he was the alumni alumni president for you know for for UCLA Anderson
I think that's what it was yeah um anyway so and I was the student rep for my class and so I had a chance to work with Bob um in that capacity like you know doing student run events and whatnot and Bob was terrific and very present and um he asked me uh what I was going to do for the summer and I said well I'd love to come work for you he goes oh all right you know wow I'll do that yeah so I went and kind of worked for Bob and I it was funny my first day at that job cu we're like I'm not sure what I was going to do I was going to do some research project or something and and the day my first day at Kennedy Wilson um the analyst quit so so Bob's like all
right so we'll do we'll do that real EST that research project but you're also going to be the analyst my go oh okay and so I did that all summer deals like are you no you learn no a sitcom writer like you know I made deals fun you know right um no so I learned quick um you know I mean I you know UCLA you get a real sure you know there's a reason you I got a lot of accounting and finance and all that stuff so it was fine but um no you know the uh that that summer um was one where I really cut my teeth and um and you know when I went at the end of that summer I told Bob I was like hey I got to go back to school and he's like
back to school I was like well cuz I'm in the middle of my getting my MBA like this is important yeah and so I agreed to stay on and work while pursuing my degree and you know of course it started off it's like look I'll do 10 hours you know within three weeks that that turned into a 40-hour work week and you know I was I was enrolling in classes at night and doing the you know whatever I could do to get out of big group projects all right fine cuz I actually had a really important job and one where I was learning and and getting paid so um that was exciting and I actually did my first two deals uh while at school um at at you know you know you remember what those first two deals were yeah so I
did one um you know this was a um this was an acquisition we had my very first one that I worked on was aund 10 110 10 unit project in West Cina um and it was a great little deal um brought to us I don't remember if it was on Market or off Market but you know Bob Bob had great relationships we got a lot of first looks at things and whatnot and um it was a seller that we had worked with before and we um we analyzed the deal and I you know ran the numbers and all that and did all the work um and Bob and I um met with um some Japanese investors uh who were introduced to the company through Bill MCM maro's relationships I think it was um uh which was also interesting and we were um
you know we said great let's let's do this project and um I was taking a international negotiations class at the same time as sitting in a room with Japanese investors you know so it was just kind of cool like like uh I think I learned something school about this you know of course I'm like yeah I knew when not to talk so exact um but it was very interesting and and and exciting and so I closed that um and then uh quickly got another one under contract um and we closed that like during my spring break or something and then for my uh third project I actually was buying a third deal up uh in in a market up in Santa Barbara County and um there was a real estate class that I was taking and I came up I went to the Prof and I
said hey I actually have to do this for for work and he to he I was like can I use this as my you know sort of thesis for this class because I don't want to do twoo different things right you're already working on yeah I'm already working on it this is a real thing you know he's like yeah it's fine so so I used a real a real acquisition my third acquisition at Kennedy Wilson uh for credit at school wow kind of funny yeah that was actually kind of fun two birds of one sound at the time yeah yeah so that was actually fun um and then you know from there you know kind of took off just started to doing a bunch of deals and full time after you graduated it was exactly they they you were too you were Irreplaceable at that at
that time oh never IRL well sure but like you were adding a lot of value I felt like I was adding value but I didn't look at my job like that what I did was for the next five years I thought of myself as learning and so um you know every day I was grateful for my job every day I was grateful for the experience of learning and I kept thinking that well this is good now I know how to do this and now I know how to do that now I know this market now I know that when we started buying in Seattle I was great now I know Seattle and you know I kept thinking of it as uh as an internship really even though I was you know rising in the company and rising at the in the group um but I think
that mentality um helps it helps it helped me back then it it currently it still helps me I still think of myself as learning yeah I'm learning the business I'm learning what to do and learning what not to do and you know every day it's like you know oh maybe I shouldn't do this or that's not the way to look at the world and you know um oh some things give me a competitive Advantage because that knowledge is actually pretty good and accurate and other things brings bias to the table and maybe sometimes I shouldn't be thinking that I can't do XYZ interesting yeah sometimes the less bias you bring the more opportunities you see you know and or sometimes you bring that bias and that's learning you know or that's you know it's informative that you shouldn't buy some asset so you know it's that
I just uh was watching another podcast and they were so the the guest put a question on the um the host and he was like so it was an analogy basically um let's say there's a fire right at a a home home's on fire and you have 10 people there and there's a lake and so each person is grabbing water and they're they're throwing it on the house right and they're just doing this and it's just not going out right and someone says hey wait wait a second let's take a step back everyone go fill up your bucket we'll get in a circle and we'll throw it at the same time right and sometimes it's that outside perspective and obviously the flame goes down it's like that outside perspective sometimes when you have like maybe in the past doing one by one has worked
for you right and it's it's it's very I think in this business in particular because things change but also things stay the same in terms of fundamentals and like first principles thinking but I'm constantly pushing myself to try to take a step back and see it from a different perspective because so many things are beliefs what is ingrain in us our experiences shape how we think about certain scenarios and how to overcome challenges cuz every day is a challenge and I think it's super interesting to be able to at least be aware that you don't know everything and that maybe you are looking at this from a different or a perspective that maybe isn't as beneficial or a different way you could be looking at it that would fit and and fit all the criteria that you're
looking for in that scenario well it's funny because um as it relates to real estate um I would tell people and um employees and you know F I went back to the Anderson School and taught a couple you know gave couple seminars whatever but um you know one of the easiest things to do and this is also an entertainment um one of the easiest things to do is to say no it's so simple it's a little two-letter word right no that's a bad deal no no we don't want that no doesn't fit no whatever yeah your script's no good no no whatever it's so easy to say no it's so much harder to say yes and it's also in the real estate space what I found kind of uh I don't know why maybe it's arrogance or ego or whatever but so many people would answer like oh
they bought that oh my god oh they're crazy oh my God what are they're they're idiots they must be stupid how do they pay that they weigh what a for cap what do they do how how dumb could they be and so I used to tell you know SE literally teach classes in this and uh employees and interns and stuff so guys and women obviously we we don't like I don't want to hear ever you say that about somebody else's underwriting instead ask yourself what did they see that we missed like isn't that a little bit more challenging instead of H easy to say no like how wow they underwrote with XY assumption why didn't we do that we missed this opportunity yeah we
missed an opportunity not that they were crazy not that they overpaid that's my favorite overused oh they overpay well no maybe maybe they did but maybe they didn't you know so and it's such a weird real estate is such a weird business too where timing does have a lot to do
with it too right so in that moment in that time it could have looked strange to everyone else because of the timing but for whatever reason you know things change and it looks genius at that point or vice versa and we're feeling that or seeing a little bit of that in today's market with interest rates where completely out of anyone's control um investor wise where they jump up at the fastest rate I think in history it's like you that's a Black Swan event that a lot of people would not have assumed or had assumptions because at the end of the day the underwriting is assumptions right making future bets on what you think is likely going to happen based upon your experience and knowledge and studying and research and things like that but no one knows what's going to be happening in the future and so I
think having the the base of knowledge having ideas to bounce up other people and have people in your corner and mentors who can maybe experienced situations like this definitely seems to be um a key that I've noticed with a lot of the clients that I work with is like there was someone in their corner someone who who believed in them or they had this kind of um this sounding board to bounce ideas off of because everyone's trying to figure it out at the end of the day and no one's going to get it 100% but if you can learn and take some you know years of experience or someone else like why not take that yeah you know what I mean yeah abut which actually brings me to a point because you've worked with some of the legends of the industry right you you crossed PA and work directly
think is a through line between the very successful Legends of the industry that they do differently or what makes them is there one thing or skill set that you think separates them from the other people all trying to do the
same thing you know I think it's a good question I think um I think maybe the consistent factor is um the the people that at least that I truly respect um they're not trying to reinvent the wheel they're not trying to get too cutesy and creative you know while you know people can make a ton of dough doing like you know converting a hotel to an apartment building it's like great but the people that I sort of followed and and would learn from they would look at it and say what we don't need to be that creative let's just do what we normally do Bob used to tell people like hey I'm like a fisherman I go out I just go out I go fishing I bring home the fish and
that's what I do every day just go out do the same thing and you know yeah let's be boring yeah let's do the same thing over and over and over again but let's get really really good at that same thing you know and it's kind of my um I took that to heart you know I I found this great project once this amazing senior senior housing deal where it was such senior housing but you could have added you know you could have added you know whatever medical services and food and it was all set up for it and what a great cap rate you know and all that and I underwrote I was like oh my gosh and then I thought back to some of those conversations that I've had and I was like you know what why don't we just be boring let's go buy a
partments and let's let's make the apartments something other than Little Boxes let's sell the community let's let's let's renovate to a different kind of you know Vibe or a different sort of standard and let's bring something special to the residents by doing what we know how to do let's let's bring a standard of living a little higher for some folks that that could use a little higher standard of living yeah and are willing to pay for it um so identifying
your zone of genius and sticking to almost to a point where it hurts that that opportunity that you know uh people the analogy the woman in the red dress you know is like there's so many distractions and especially the the better you get and the bigger you get the more opportunities that come to you and being disciplined or at least having around enough people around you to to keep you in that discipline of like no this is what we do this is what we're good at this is where we have a competitive Advantage like let's do this consistently over time yeah which everything compounds when you do something over and over and over and over especially if you do it well over and over and over again is that what you're saying yeah that's basically
what I'm saying I mean um you know just and you start to see things you start to see similarities and you kind of know what operations will be like in certain submarkets and you know you can kind of get a little bit of a nuanced approach um and maybe because you've become really good at your little specific Niche you can find that extra dollar to pay the seller and win in a bid you know or you can convince them to sell it to you over the next guy because you know you've got six other projects that look just like it um and so you know I think that like kind of forming that expertise um is is kind of critical I'm curious
what's the strategy I would say um start small and start with friends and family and start with something you can be pretty sure about and how do you find the deal that is that's a million dollar question uh I think you you get on lists and you find investment sales Brokers that'll you know send you stuff I would say you know figure out what you think reasonably you can afford I.E how much money can you raise if it's 500,000 it's one kind of deal if it's 5 million it's another um and once you figured out what your money raise could be on the equity side to the back of the envelope and figure out what the debt you know can be on it what you're qualified for terms of the lender and your recourse car vs and all that
kind of stuff or you know your banking relationships and once you have that Capital sort of imaginary capital in your head then uh go out and meet with some of the investment sales Brokers or you know if it's duplexes it's duplexes you know there's a certain you know certain kind of realtor that works on those specifically or if it's a fourplex or you get into the apartment space of five and a you know five units and above you know if you can get um you know Brokers to uh Realtors whoever to show you some five plexes or eight 10 plexes whatever it is um and start you know talking and socializing what you've got and be convincing that you have the money that you can do this that you are T you've spoken to all your investors and everybody's on board they just
need an XYZ you know whatever and um and then lastly but maybe firstly I would say get rid of your ego and make sure that when you're talking to investors you're not saying I'm going to do this and I'm going to deliver that and when you're talking to the Realtors the Brokers you're just you know you're starting out be Earnest and real and don't say I've got this you know I'm the I'm the Kingpin you know whatever unless you are a Kingpin yeah yeah unless you got thr Ed out of money and fund right but yeah but if you're um if you're kind of trying to just figure it out man just be real and say listen I I have the money supposedly I'm BS you yeah but I've been told that if I can find a product that's a five Plex in
this corner of the market and in this little area and it shows this kind of return Dynamics then I can close this deal and they'll absolutely pay your fee and be excited to do it yeah and and you know what it's not the first it's it maybe the first one I'm doing but it won't be the last I want to build a portfolio and be real with this this person who's staking their time and specking their future on your ability to close yeah you know be respectful of that like why would you know some people go in whatever chest thumping all the time at I maybe it works for I don't know it doesn't work for me yeah I can I got to be real no I I'll say um
when people are upfront and it helps me too as a broker when someone especially someone who maybe hasn't had the track record as some of these other clients that we have assurity of of closing or a high likelihood right um being upfront and honest I think is like hey here's what I got here's how I'm looking at it what do you see like what is your opinion like here's what my game plan is um you know I'm planning on growing and just being super upfront with it I think it goes a long way building trust for us too and you know lock on I would say too is is like lock on to a a younger broker too someone who maybe has done a few deals and they're picking up steam and you're like okay I think that person could potentially continue in
this business and if we can go and align together right we could do a bunch of deals together because of that relationship which is like you said Real Estate is such a huge relationship business and everyone talks about the off-market deal right the the the usually the best deals that you can get are typically the off-market ones just because
of uh you have opinion on that maybe tell me tell me do yeah um I've bought tons of off-market stuff and I've done I've bought tons of onm Market stuff um sometimes off Market is not so good cuz you're not you might be overpaying you might be seeing something that you don't that's not really
and it's that it's a Psy psychological thing absolutely interesting absolutely and investors fall into that trap too I mean I got to say if you if I showed somebody that said oh it's off Market oh really oh this must be good my first response Market or on off Market Market is well what's the story of the real estate like if it is it the broker has been showing it on market for a you know the last year and a half and now it's off market and okay but it's been fully marketed that's a is it off or on I don't know how do you categorize that or if it's truly off market like you got a buddy that's selling it and I've bought those also you know are they selling it to you because what you they like your
nobody's like hey I'm going to lose $7 million yeah nobody's doing that so so then the question is well why isn't this being marketed well that's good if there's a good reason for it okay um but I've brought things on Market that I just like I said I would just see something a little different than my competitors oh if I if we we can actually fix this entire amenity package by not having the office and the amenity together like why don't we move the amenity to an out building that's already existing that I can now just renovate and instead of doing and then I can recapture this as Xyz space and you know just looking at it slightly differently um and nobody is underwriting that yeah you know potentially yeah you know or I had a project um that was fully marketed
that I I went down this was down in San Diego and or greater San Diego um and the units was such a such a cute little deal um and they two by they were 2 by one units two bedom one bathroom units and I looked at it and it's the most interesting layout I think I've ever seen I was like this is just weird MH but I stood there and I was like wait a minute if I move if I move if I drywall this up and move the shower to over here here install a new toilet over there all of a sudden I have a 2x2 unit instead of a 2x1 unit which commanded a huge rent premium and we're talking about you know $4 $500 just by being able to look
at something and saying yes we reducing some shelf space and you know maybe instead of a tub you know a tub and shower it's just a shower stall okay it still counts yeah um but literally nobody else was looking at it like that and so I was like I can pay a little bit more yeah and so that was a perfect execution of that idea like I just saw something that other people weren't looking at yeah so
which speaks to the the point of going and seeing real estate right I know for sure which is a big uh conversation I have with people who are thinking about buying out of state where they're used to Los Angeles right and I'm like yeah a lot people made a lot of money buying out of state the last couple years they've also lost a lot of money as of recently too but what you need to have a true understanding of the area the asset what tenants want what is going to draw that premium you almost have to have this boost on the ground presence otherwise the people who do have the booths in the ground presence there's a better chance that they understand a Nuance that maybe you're going to not pick up on or miss or or do whatever which I know you've bought
out of state that seems to me as like wherever you go whether you're going to be okay I want to go invest in Cleveland because there's you know decent pricing and I think there's opportunity and rank growth and you know Supply demand have a clear understanding of
of what is actually the fundamentals of that market oh for sure I used to think about that all the time like yeah I could go invest in and let's just pick on Cleveland yeah sure I could of course I could do what what I do here I could do there I could do I could buy in Cleveland yeah but don't you think there's a there's a guy just like me in Cleveland that knows Cleveland as well as I know Los Angeles yeah I think so yeah you know you know who wants to be the guy with from out of state buying up all the local real estate that nobody would touch because they all know the history or they know the whatever the the reals about some location I don't want to be that guy yeah so I think people fall into that trap all the
time and um you know they ignore their own backyard yeah I think it's a bad mistake and investors also investors you know if you're sitting out there with these ideas that you're going to make a make a mint by buying in red States as opposed to Blue States you know like well you're not it's not going to happen that's not why people make money it's not the politics yeah it's it's the availability of Housing and the supply of Housing and what is the what are the fundamentals in the real estate sector not whether somebody is not the politics not the well we don't like our tax structure in California yeah nobody does I yeah but let's talk about for a second that we're the fifth biggest economy in the world you know like I I'm just tired you know I know a little bit of a tangent but
I'm tired of hearing from investors who don't want to be in California like okay would you just ignore Sweden yeah you know would you say oh we're a Redline France yeah maybe France but you but you know we're going to redline the UK you know California is a bigger economy than the United Kingdom yeah you're going to what not invest in countries because of the politics of blue versus red and the I mean come on that's the dumbest idea ever I
think what a big equalizer is real estate is real estate and a deal is a deal no matter if it's in the toughest political envir environment or the most lacked political environment and there's pros and cons to each y but a deal is a deal and there's deals everywhere there's always deals everywhere especially in the robust Market that is you know multif family and in the real estate market yeah I want to talk about um something that we're doing now and that I've seen you been a little more active on and and maybe is a little taboo to to many um in your position which is social media and I'm just curious to know why and again I can make some assumptions based upon the the comedy background and being pretty comfortable in that space But like why have you leaned into social media as a principle of a multif
family investment shop why is that something you've spent time and money and energy I haven't spent that much time doing social stuff um it's I I've you know you don't want to be left behind as technology kind of expands and I'm looking at everything right now um in terms of positioning and marketing and all that and um interestingly some folks have really embraced the influencer kind of whatever mentality which I have not done yeah and I don't know how well it's going to work for them I know my own you know everybody's got Instagram andever all the feeds that I'm on all of a sudden I'm I'm seeing real estate deals and I'm like I don't I don't know how the I don't know how the algorithm Works they've identified me as some kind of you know whatever yeah but um and I
try not to click on anything cuz it's like they're tracking you yeah they're tracking me right so I'm like I don't know this is weird um but uh like all things social media the danger is you don't really know anybody you don't really know if this person is you know is real MH you know guy getting on social media saying oh I'm going to introduce you 10 people and you know you're going to pay me for those introductions and that those 10 people are going to give you money for your next real estate deal it's like really yeah is that is that the best way yeah that's not the best way it's a way but it's maybe not not the best so I I'm very cautious about being on social media and doing anything on social in terms of uh anything more than just
you know when somebody Googles me if it I I should pop up somehow so that human you know but for Capital raising right for Capital raising and for you know Market presence and you know U investment sales Brokers they who's this who's maybe the younger folks who you know they can run into their you know the senior person running the office and oh I found this guy Eddie rang new standard equities you know this guy was like Eddie of course I've known him for 20 years yeah oh okay you know I I don't I want that I want that level of recognition and people who understand that I'm um you know that I'm a real you know functioning human in the in this space is that calculated or is that something you've just kind of stumbled upon not calculated yeah
not calculated I just don't you know again it's like it goes back to my entertainment days I don't want a bunch of fake book kind of you know relationships not into that at all um I'd much rather be known as a real guy with uh you know real investors and real properties that are you know hopefully going to do okay and yeah my future assets I'm pretty darn sure will do really well yeah um because I think we're in the by the way I don't know if anybody's told you the bottom already passed yeah we're now in the up swing I'm 99.9% sure yeah why' you say that um with interest rates getting cut I think and all the capital that's been on the sidelines and no sign of a real economic recession like you know severe recession where rents would drop um all the
data is pointing to even the over supplied markets are being absorbed which is shocking to me but somehow those units are filling up in the Sun Belt I just don't see anything on the horizon that's going to lead to a real true recession and so um I think the FED will be cutting rates short-term rates that will have a an impact maybe not
25 bit reduction won't do much a 50 you know I don't actually it's probably by the time you I don't know when air this thing can be done but um you know I think that the general trend is uh that rates are getting cut by about 200 bips over the next year uh the short-term rates and that will have a downward pressure on cap rates for sure um and uh then it's back to real estate fundamentals can you take can buy at a 4 and a half five cap improve the asset get it to a six sell it at a five and you know you take that spread and you you pocket the the profit and give it to your investors and move on playbook yeah just keep running the Playbook so right now if you feel that way right what
are you doing to put yourself in a position to take advantage of that so I'm meeting Equity I'm meeting folks who are interested that that have likeminded views of of the space uh uh in markets and product type you know there's a lot of institutional Capital out there that are that's looking for kind of 2010 and newer vintage at six caps which isn't happening um and so a lot of that capital is going to you know that'll go down to five caps and you know whatever but there's a lot of demand from the capital providers for that type of real estate and right now there nobody wants the 60s 7s kind of stuff that I specialize in in terms of the equity uh so that's been challenging uh but we've got our feelers out um we're looking at 10 to 15 projects right
now actually um up in the greater Seattle Market um and um we're hoping that uh that we're going to start seeing some transaction opportunities in California especially in the Bay Area um and because that's where all the job creators are I think for the most part yeah um and um you know we just kind of you know kind of keep keep our noses to the grindstone and keep looking for assets and money so and keep going and keep going yeah I love it well uh
before you wrap up is there anything that you want to leave the listeners or the audience with that for you either has change your perception or recently something that you've changed your mind on or anything that you think might
be beneficial to them I you know I don't know it's I think we've touched on a lot of things I think um you know critically speaking um I think uh Partnerships are important to really you know spend time thinking about employee partners are you know everything seems like a good idea at the front end and you know things can things can turn sour and things can go wrong in the wrong direction and and you have to have a you have to have a a slate of partners that are uh that understand the landscape that you're in and understand what um what you're trying to do and make sure you're on the same page um and that goes with employees as well um you know I can promise the world to somebody but if the world changes then you know they're
not going to make a share of the profit You know despite the fact that they you know they work their tails off you know that's kind of the the hard part about this is that everybody's taking a risk at some point and the idea in all of real estate investing is how have how can you mitigate the risk and um how can you leverage that risk to to actually you know generate some returns for yourself and your family and your employees ultimately your residents so amazing Eddie I appreciate it all right thank you very much yeah thank you of course
[Music] thank you for listening to this episode if you enjoyed the podcast it would mean the world to me if you could rate US five stars on YouTube Spotify and apple podcast it really helps us get our name out there and helps us get fantastic people like our guests to share their insights and knowledge with you again my name is Taylor ven I specialize in the sale of apartment buildings in Los Angeles in Southern California and I look forward to sharing more of these conversations with you see you in the next one