Eric Weatherholtz
@iononrecourse
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Retail redevelopment since 1992. ULI Development of Excellence Award winner. World-famous newsletter: Asphalt Jungle. @realestateanon @automaticmeetup
Healey Weatherholtz Properties
Joined September 2021
Some folks here are dialed in to class B industrial, others self-storage, others urban multifamily. Some sickos - office. Our business is a commercial real estate sub-specialty:. Patios. 1/20
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@BrentBeshore Suck the marrow from every day's bone. Be present, squeeze the kids, coach the teams, take the camping trip, ride the dirt bike with them on the handlebars (without telling mom). And scratch out some fat equity positions.
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I got a business lesson from a chef pal yesterday:. "We all buy bagged frozen calamari from Sysco,. I can call it fried calamari, put it in a red plastic basket with some marinara and sell if for "$7.99". I can call it crispy calamari, toss it with five spice and sweet chili.
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What if you were building a donut shop and a taco stand and had some leftover land in the back and a woman asked if you would sell so she could build some houses and you said ok and she did this
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How to get rich in real estate (DIY style). Inherit it or marry it. If that doesn’t work and you’re starting from zero, here’s how:.
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An friend has been running his own small family office for 24 years. Working on it (or at least thinking about it) daily, dealing with alt managers, taxes, distributions, 3 part time employees, etc. Compounded annual growth rate?. 4.3%.
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for 20 yrs our electrician has sent a quarterly inspection report of lights out in our parking lots with note "I will proceed with repairs unless instructed otherwise". super sticky re-ocurring business, 50 customers, bet he nets $300k/yr from this alone. one savvy country boy.
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Similar size, similar cost. Creating the building on the left takes a ton of effort and money. The building on the right (one of our projects) also took a ton of effort and money. The one on the left makes everything around it less desirable, but the one on the right helped
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GC’s email got hacked, wiring instructions changed for latest draw request. We send $190k to wrong address. Secret Service saves the day - locks the account, we get our $$$ returned. I’m not bashing big government for a while.
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In real estate, life can come at you slow. 17 years ago we started on a master plan to improve a three block stretch of Atlanta. And
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Met a roofing contractor last night. He operates in a mountain west resort town. Told him that must be a good gig. “Yep it’s a joke - I meet the other contractors once a week for breakfast and we decide how much to raise prices. We’re all a year or more out on waiting lists”.
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If you're an aspiring real estate GP, now might just be a helluva time to get started:. This playbook works in all property types, but is best suited for sub-institutional properties. You'll need experience, low overhead, and gumption. Step 1:.
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How to make getting rich unavoidable (best for those in their 20s):. 1. Pick a major US growth market that will urbanize over the next 20 years. 2. Identify corridors with infrastructure and zoning to accommodate density . 3. Purchase cash-flowing.
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We bought a shopping center years ago that came with 8 lame benches, the kind you'd find in a smoking court at suburban office campus. Replacing them with something vibey would've cost $3k each. An artist friend said "give me 2 weeks and $500 each" and i'll repaint them. His
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5 things to know about windows:. 1) They make corridors better
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There's lots of ways to make hay in the real estate investment biz . If I was starting out as an independent hustler and had a lot of runway ahead of me and wanted to maximize upside odds while hedging my downside, here's how I'd do it:.
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I'll be older than Biden by the time I pay off a 25 year amortization mortgage, but if I were a young hustler here's the type properties I would be chasing:. 1) mobile home parks in growth markets. 2) strip retail in growth markets. 3) single story storage/industrial in growth.
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The ability to increase values in commercial real estate is a handy skill. Places where alpha hides:. - change of use. Convert the vacant Kmart to storage, build out lofts in the old cotton mill. Also,.
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One of the most successful real estate companies I know:. an independent ATL pizza joint operator
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Getting big rich: a modest path for an aspiring real estateur:. 1. work for someone leasing and managing small ($3-20m) commercial properties. 2. learn management and become an expert in leasing these properties (pick a small geography and product type). .
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Amazon putting 5.5 million sf of sublease distribution space on the market in ATL . If that’s a leading indicator of softening demand should one be a buyer or seller?.
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Remember - there are no rules to this thing, real estateurs included:
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Here's what fascinates me about mixed-use development:. A tiny operating business - a coffee shop, a bar, a taco stand - can change the vibe of everything around it. Something as small as a few hundred square feet can influence the value of several million square feet. And the
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Let us give thanks a few places still remain where Americans can shoot pool and get beer in pitchers. Protect these places and give them your money.
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In real estate, beware old coots. Then study their every move. Once an unknown legend OC asked me to his office and out of curiosity (and since I aspire to old-cootness) I agreed. the receptionist rang him on the beige multi-line phone.
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For those with a bit of ambition to be a real estate entrepreneur, we're entering a terrific launch time. *To do this you'll need to have saved up personal overhead for 3 years. Here's how to minimize your chances of screwing up:.
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For the past couple of decades we’ve managed partnerships that buy commercial properties. We look for those that for one reason or another haven’t reached their full potential. Then we fix them up and rent them out. Here’s some before & afters:
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Best part of our business:. When a first-time restaurateur risks everything, taking a chance that you'll deliver a good building, and a few years later the Michelin man comes knocking.
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One simple trick for making a big pile of dough in real estate:. I get asked a lot about what I would've done differently or what advice I have for young ambitious types trying to get ahead in real estate. There's 3 standard real estate tracks - . 1) Trading - buy a small.
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2018 we agreed to a 1 yr 20% rent cut to help an 80k sf tenant going thru a rough patch. biz improved and back to full rent next yr per agreement . All good. All forgotten. They’ve now outgrown us and are moving. Sent a check last week for the short pay + interest. Menschs.
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Retail is in the details. Some of the details we incorporated into a small ground-up building:
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Big open parking lots kill vibes in an urban area, but if you want a grocery store, you better have a big open parking lot. Our gang came up with this layout of moving the shops up to the street edge and hiding the parking lot. Grocer satisfied and vibes will be on.
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A longtime pal, biz partner, and madman just bought a Cold War communications bunker in nowhere Nebraska. Blastproof doors, 300’ tower, 18’ ceilings, 25 acres, 60k sf underground. Ideas on what to do with it?
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What are your secret weapons?. One of our howitzers:. My partner's dad has shared an office with us for 20 yrs. He's 82, former CEO of a fortune 500, and a marine. 60 yrs of investing experience, smart mofo. Any big decisions get his input. *can still do 100 pushups.
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Not sure what any of you over achievers accomplished this morning but I got around to canceling Sirius on a car I sold 2 years ago.
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One thing that stuck with me from the Great Financial Crisis:. These two houses are across the street from each other, in an exurban area that got slammed when demand dried up. The McMansion, on a similar size lot and with every creature comfort, eventually sold but at a
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For real estate operators, macro thinking is for chumps. In reality, every project is an Ocean's 11-style caper. Here's what we look for in deals:.
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As part of a 1031 exchange, we bought an OK suburban shopping center in 2006 at the market peak at an 8% cap - a pretty good deal for the time. Sold it a bit below market in 2016 at an 8% cap - should've done better but needed the money for another project. No debt, it.
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One of the popular Sunbelt real estate hustles that made some folks rich over the past few decades:. Buy a large corner in the path of progress and sell off the corner to a gas station/drug store/car wash for most of or more than the entire purchase price. Then sit on your ass
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Hustle 🧵:. Years ago I was driving with a pal who pointed out how the vast parking lot of a huge suburban mall was underutilized and how they could have it filled with restaurants etc. Yeah, I said and kept driving us to lunch. 👇.
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Got to meet IRL a young twitterer & future legend who explained how well his no inventory re-occurring revenue, no cap ex, 50% annual growth, 60% margins, no debt, highly scalable, 100% owned B2B biz is doing and how he’s interested in real estate. I punched him in the face.
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What if your entire value-add real estate strategy was just putting independent bakeries next to your buildings?
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The knock on sunbelt cities is there’s “no there there” (h/t Gertrude Stein), just an endless sea of stucco strip malls, landscaped office parks, and Escalades. Urban bike trails cure this. The 22-mi Beltline revealed ATL’s forgotten soul and created $ billions of value.
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A pal sold his family's 100 year old home services biz to private equity. He kept an investment in the new company and gave up total control. Guess what happened. They've crushed it. Revenue up, profits up, employee satisfaction up, efficiency up. Streamlined ops and happy.
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If you're running a real estate company, here's a trait to look for in prospective employees:. For a development project, a friend needed an easement from one of the large railroads and she charged a young woman in her office with getting it. One can only imagine the brick wall.
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@hedgefundmafia Developer interested in buying land from us arrived late for meeting. Dressed in a fancy jacket and ascot but sweating and jittery. "Sorry I'm late, someone killed my wife last night" . drew his finger across his throat and recounted every detail . Arrested later that day.
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Anyone that's started from nothing and made serious dough in real estate used these four tools:.
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if you own a 1970s strip shopping center, purchased before 2013, and from the parking lot you can see high-rises and neighborhoods with mature oak trees you're either a) rich or b) will be.
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A pal says he has a “rug shop”. I envision a rug shop. I’m wrong. His rug shop:
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Our friend Moses monitoring Silverlake multi owners for weak hands
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Meaningful real estate projects take 3-5 years to complete, and there's at least six months on the front end getting organized to identify and make a purchase. 3.5 years ago was February, 2020.5.5 years ago was February, 2018. In that window: worldwide pandemic, 10 year treasury
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Retail is in the details. Our gang spent 3 months sweating over this rendering and 4 years building it.
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What would real estate success look like to you?. I’ll go first:
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One of my mentors (although he doesn't know it):. Klaus Obermeyer. Escaped Nazis on skis, despite being shot. Made his way to Aspen via Sun Valley as a ski instructor. Innovated with products and created things we all know and love like the down jacket, alpine sunscreen, and the
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So you want to be a real estate operator? Here’s how to not be a chump: 🧵.
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I keep this image as a reminder that in multifamily design, simple is ok.
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Under-discussed around here, but NNN retail development is a way for an enterprising young hustler to make some serious hay . Competitive, hell yes, but if you've got a wildcatter's sensibility, a reliable car, and some charm it's worth looking into. Here's how it works:.
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The real estateur's toolkit for outperforming the market:. - Buy in special situations.- Buy in down markets.- Add square footage.- Change use.- Hold until market is hot.- Sell before market is cold.- Add optionality.- Bundle a portfolio.- Unbundle a portfolio.- Add leverage.-.
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My business partner just spent 2 days in back to back to back meetings with retailers at the ICSC conference in Vegas. 3 recurring themes:. - “our expansion strategy is red states”. - “skilled contractors are aging out w/no replacements”. - “Greenville SC is cool”.
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“We let them have 20% of the profits once our investment is returned. I think of it as a tip”
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A book that changed the way I see the real estate world is John Gall's Systemantics. Had a call with a retwitter today that reminded me of it. You can read it in an afternoon but the synopsis is:.
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Business advice:. If you can find a cheap former service station in a rich area, buy it. You'll have no shortage of eager tenants. On second thought, tell me about it and I'll handle it.
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We first started working on a redevelopment of the former Turner Field in 2016. The Atlanta Braves moved to the suburbs and the surrounding community was down on its luck. The formerly vibrant neighborhood had been paved over for a stadium and parking lots, and now even the
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What I wished I learned about the real estate biz a long time ago:. Over 20 years, we've had a small handful of big paydays. Each one was an outlier case where the market was in a great place and within that some buyer decided to really *really* stretch and we got lucky. We've.
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“I hadn’t really considered parting with it - what do you mean cap rate?”
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Most American cities have a hyper rich family you haven't heard of but someone a generation or three ago owned a few grocery stores and ended building strip centers to house their business. The business lost out to Kroger or Wal-Mart long ago, but the properties are still.
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One benefit of my advanced age is having had the good fortune of meeting a whole lotta independent real estate operators that figured it out and experienced outrageous business success. All have different versions of the same story. here's the playbook:.
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People I know that tend to dislike their job and are always looking for something new:. 1. Lawyers.2. Corporate middle managers.3. Salespeople. People I know that tend to love their work and are looking for ways to keep doing it:. 1. Actors.2. Ranchers.3. Real estate developers.
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Scene from a temporary office of one of the best real estate operators I know. This photo was during a surgical assemblage of properties with the plan to create a major redevelopment. Every building on both sides of the street identified, underwritten, and diligenced with a
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Gotta get off Twitter. Hung around on here for 2 months and now have 590 self storage units under construction. This is a cry for help.
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To survive the tumultuous world of real estate, we need to operate from first principles . Here’s a few of our core beliefs:.
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Forget walkable urbanism. America needs walkable suburbanism. America's suburbs are vast untapped vibe reserves.
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The real money in Class-B warehouses is picking the ones that can become this:
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We've got a handful of properties we've been involved with for 20+ years and it turns out depreciation is real. Roofs and parking lots have a shelf life, mechanical systems too. Even landscaping ages out. Managing for the long term changes the math, and most of us underestimate.
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Not our project but as we’re working on a new life for an ATL church, stealing some inspiration from the uber talented Michael Hsu:
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got a pal whose business is calling retail owners to tell them their tenant (his client) won’t renew without a rent reduction. fabricates reasons why and team works the phones, sharing a big chunk of rent savings . He makes a ton of dough - most owners don’t have a chance.
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Bootstrap real estateur hearing fat salary W-2 friend say “PTO”.
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says he wishes he could sell the company. She pipes up “I’ll buy it”. “Sure thing, kid”. “No - I’m serious”. A few months later she closes (with lots of seller financing) of a 120yo business. 20 years later they have 40 trucks - and a 10k office bldg she bought for $180k . 🇺🇸.
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At that point in my career where I want to build a boutique hotel. Send help.
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I’ve built or renovated 9 personal homes over the years. Completion cost averaged 2x budget. Thrilled with all of them. Nasty habit.
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What’s the difference between a beginning real estate developer and a large pizza?. A large pizza can feed a family of four.
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A case for being horizontally-integrated: . We wanted dope, dense, walkable for-sale housing as part of a larger scale development. Never could’ve done it on our own but teaming up with a local pro got us this:
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2 richest cats I know:. 1. Has a self sustaining compound in New Zealand with armed security (just in case).2. Has an underground bunker with 100,000 rounds of ammo. I've got an extra 12 pack of TP and some AAA batteries.
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