Retail/Medical focused CRE developer & multi unit franchisee of RNR Tire Express. Father of 4 & lucky husband 🙏🏻. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Palm City, FL
- Tweets 7,909
- Following 604
- Followers 3,101
- Likes 26,158
Pinned Tweet
How I got started as a CRE investor/developer:
2010: Graduated from FSU w/a degree in finance. 3.0 GPA. Partied hard, enjoyed myself, a lot. Probably too much… Definitely too much.
2010-2013: Switch flipped for me after graduation. Worked in finance for FL’s largest private home builder. Learned the development biz from finance perspective. Worked 12 hour days in the beginning & enrolled in UF’s professional MBA program at same time (nights / weekends = fully engaged with work & learning). By early 2012, I had mastered my job (8 hr days) + finished my MBA program. Felt like I could take on a second job. Started buying, renting/flipping houses on the side to fill the newfound time I had, bought REO’s from banks at big discounts (partnered w/my dad for capital). I managed the flips, hired help from Home Depot parking lots and did a lot of the work myself on night/weekends. Started to make decent $$ on the side but nothing crazy.
2014-2015: Kept flipping houses on side. Got job at LNR (CMBS special servicer) as analyst in loan asset management. Great experience, underwrote billions of $ of cre transactions. Promoted to associate quickly, managed a book defaulted loans/negotiated work outs. Learned what not to do in CRE biz.
2015-2016: Kept flipping houses on side. Got promoted, to Starwood’s (owner of LNR) capital markets group in their mortgage REIT, moved to SF. Huge deal volume. Placed ~$3B of capital annually with small team. Felt like I was on top of finance world, but not fulfilled & didn’t like long term prospect of staying the course.
2016: Made ~$90k in 44 days flipping a house in SE FL from SF. Made the decision on a walk around Lake Tahoe one weekend. Quit my job & moved back to SFL w/my wife (recently married).
2017: I “became” a developer. Stopped flipping houses. Waning REO supply & increase demand = lower margins & hard to scale. I was determined to figure out how to start my own CRE development/investment shop so I could apply/combine all of my professional experience to my side hustle, tried a couple of different strategies before one stuck (different partners, a little cre brokerage etc). Found my first cre development deal on the MLS (will write separate post about it - it was an adventure in and of itself!). 0.5 acre site on a lighted intersection across street from a Publix. Hired best consultants in market to guide me through first deal - 4,200 SF build to suit for MD Now urgent care. Got lucky. Made $.
Spent a lot of time getting laughed at @ ICSC shows in the beginning - would tell people I was starting a development shop with little development & no construction experience or relationships and had multiple people laugh at me / brush me off / not take me seriously. Kept at it, cold called tenants and land owners - kept the faith! Deals & relationships started flowing after a couple of years. I was persistent as hell. Was pretty low on cash personally for first 3 years (lived off wife’s nursing salary + supplemented with a little cre brokerage on side) - fortunate to have my dad as LP to fund the deals we ended up finding, he has never given me $$, only lent it to me (always have paid him back) and acted as a true LP.
2020-now: Tides have turned, with the help of so many amazing people/tenants/partners/consultants, we have done some amazing deals (over $80MM of deals underway/completed - most after 2020), made amazing $$, & we’re now preferred developers for a handful of national brands. First grocery anchored mixed use development currently under construction.
2021: Hired/partnered with my younger brother (former investment banker) to run construction & development. Kid is an animal and makes my life so much easier.
I am very blessed - it has been a wild ride. Tons of risk & sleepless nights. Highs are high & lows are low, but I wouldn’t change a thing!
36
10
342
100,700
😍😍🛞🛞
Music to my ears
This is getting ridiculous.
I’ve owned 2 different Teslas for 4 years and I love ALMOST everything about them…
My Cybertruck has under 15k miles and look at this tire.
It’s hard to bang the “Teslas require no maintenance” drum when the tire wear is horrendous and EXPENSIVE!
1
4
700
Not to be a doomer - but this is very interesting book if you like historical finance nonfiction!
143
Interesting historical perspective on cap Rates v interest rates/10 yr T’s.
Chipotle’s in Florida still getting listed at 4.5% caps while the 10 yr is hovering around 5%.
My takeaways are:
- cash is King
- lock in long term debt now if you can (hopefully you did this 12 months ago)
- the perceived likelihood of Chipotle paying their rent seems to be higher than the United States’ ability to service its debt
- as a point of fact, Chipotle has zero (or close to / outside of operating lease liabilities) long-term corporate debt & the United States has close to $40T
- a bet on real estate is more of a bet on long-term American success vs buying US treasuries is more of a bet on American fiscal policy & American policy makers
- I don’t know anything about anything and probably never will
One of our staff members walked into my office earlier.
He has a very good friend who is a quantitative analyst at Blackrock.
Told him off record that Blackrock is having them stress test everything with a 10 year treasury at 9% for an extended period of time.
Said "worried" is an understatement.
11
22
13,378
Who else went TP’ing during Halloween or reindeer tipping during Christmas!? Good old fashioned, harmless fun 😬
BREAKING NEWS:
Arby's has added an exterior clear cabinet that locks much to the dismay of the neighborhood teenagers...
Nice work Arby's Team!!
P.S. the teenagers got a few more in before Arby's locked the sign
1
5
682
What’s with logic behind “data centers use our water” argument against data center development?
Matter is neither created or destroyed.
Sooo what gives? Reminds me of a south park episode.
@grok?
4
4
686
This is wild:
Grant Carlene & Pace Morby don’t know the difference between a deed & the concept of title, and don’t even know what they each technically are/do.
google.com/search?q=grant+ca…
3
6
2,552
Great advice right here!
I’m not quite sure I understand the question, so I’m going to assume we’re starting with a candidate’s CV and employment history.
I like to walk through that history looking for patterns.
One of the strongest positive signals, particularly for certain roles, is someone who has followed a previous leader into another organization. A good manager left, went somewhere else, and actively tried to bring this person with them. I’ve hired several people with that pattern and they’ve all been strong performers.
Beyond that, I usually start with some version of: “Tell me about the most important thing you personally accomplished in that role.”
Then I drill down.
Say they tell me they grew a territory from $2M to $5M.
"What was the situation when you inherited it? What specifically did you change? Who else was involved? What was actually your contribution? What was the hardest part? What didn’t work? Who disagreed with you? What would your manager say you did particularly well? What would they say you could have done better?"
I usually spend 10 to 15 minutes on one accomplishment.
I’m not really trying to validate the accomplishment itself. I’m watching how they talk about success, failure, other people, their own contribution, and the things they got wrong.
That usually tells me a lot more than asking someone directly whether they’re humble, accountable, or coachable.
But let me know if I misunderstood what you were asking.
1
804
Hard work pays off,
Dreams do come true,
Tough times don’t last,
But tough mother f*ckers do!
-Jordan Buono
2
8
1,463
During high school & college, I was tempted with sex and drugs.
Now that I’m in my late 30s, my biggest temptation is carbs.
Everything that kills you makes you feel alive!
10
1
24
1,725
Family compound & family businesses fix this.
Not for everyone, but I see my parents almost every day still (I’m 38 - currently parents live 3 houses away from me & we’re moving onto family compound in 2029).
6
10
2,716
Character defining dilemma: what would you have done?
I was just at the grocery store with 3 of my kids (wife stayed at home with youngest).
Ended up having enough groceries where I had to push the cart full of groceries to my car. Loaded my kids up in my truck before I loaded the groceries (if I didn’t, they’d run around the parking lot).
Then, to my horror, I had a huge character defining dilemma on my hands: My 3 kids (3, 5, 7) in the car and no shopping cart corrals in sight.
Would you have done:
4
5
1,937
Peak day today, love working with my son. He worked with me for 12 hours straight. Teaching him young!
4
26
1,312
Allow me to re-introduce myself
My name is Hov, oh, H to the O-V
I used to move snowflakes by the O-Z
I guess even back then you can call me
CEO of the R-O-C, Hov
Fresh out the fryin' pan into the fire
I be the music biz number one supplier
Flyer than a piece of paper bearin' my name
Got the hottest chick in the game wearin' my chain, that's right
Hov, oh, not D.O.C.
But similar to them letters, "No One Can Do It Better"
I check cheddar like a food inspector
My homie Strict told me, "Dude, finish your breakfast"
So that's what I'ma do, take you back to the dude with the Lexus
Fast-forward the jewels and the necklace
Let me tell you dudes what I do to protect this
I shoot at you actors like movie directors
This ain't a movie, dog (Oh, shit)
1
21
1,067
