Private Real Estate is a fast-paced, ever-evolving market. Often, investors are curious to learn more about our acquisition process and how our team can find opportunities in the competitive market that we operate in today. Our answer is straight forward: we’re actively involved in our target markets, we leverage technology where we can, and we build strong relationships.
Market Knowledge
Finding the right investments takes persistence and patience. Competing with 20+ groups on a fully marketed opportunity often is the norm in today’s investment world. This elevated competition requires us to be an active and connected acquisition team. We “knock on all the doors,” “make all of the calls,” and remain diligent to find the best investments for our investors.
Being a very active group gives us the flexibility to be selective of property and provides us top-tier insights into market, submarket, and deal-level knowledge. It also often affords us off-market investment opportunities, that is, deals that other groups may not get a chance to look at.
At MLG Capital, we actively underwrite and pursue over 2,000 investment opportunities per year, on average; however, we only acquire 15-20 properties across the multifamily, industrial, office, and retail sectors.
How? We implement a dual-sourcing strategy. This allows us to pursue opportunities directly in the markets we know best and partner with local partners or sponsors in the markets they know best. By leveraging the market knowledge and expertise of our partners, we can work more efficiently and spend time analyzing the markets that we’ve been in for the last 30+ years.
Technology & Due Diligence
The wave of technology across nearly every sector has changed the way industries operate and real estate is not immune to these changes. Instead of rejecting the shift, we adapt and the large number of opportunities we review offers us ample information to utilize within our technology platforms.
Over the years, our team has built a significant database of market data, property data, and ownership information to aid in making calculated and efficient assessments of investment opportunities as they are presented. This database also provides us the historical context needed to look back at prior pursuits and opportunities.
Technology has undoubtedly become an essential integration into MLG’s acquisition pursuits and has helped to consistently innovate our business; however, technology will never tell the whole story. That’s why we strongly believe in getting boots on the ground once we decide an opportunity is worth pursing further. A Google search is a great aid in quickly getting a feel for the potential opportunity, but actually getting a set of eyes on a real estate opportunity in person is always the best way to understand the whole story. Before we proceed with an investment, we walk the entire property.
This has saved us at times from closing on an investment that would have presented problems in the future. Real estate always falls back to the adage of “location, location, location” and being in the market in-person is hard to beat.
Relationships can make or break a deal.
Despite the many efficiencies technology has provided through data and market research, the real estate business is still heavily rooted in relationships and trust with the proverbial person sitting across the table. That person across the table may often be a relationship that came from one of the many networking events or conferences we attend, a dinner, a game of golf, or from a positive experience from a previous transaction. Often times, the tiebreaker in a competitive marketplace may often come down to who knows you, and our strong relationships have become our bread and butter in finding the best opportunities.
Relationship building ties into the core of who and what we are at MLG. Both the company and team members are held to a high standard of integrity, respect, and transparency. The MLG way is rooted in the principles of being focused on people and culture. These principles drive our success within the real estate community across brokers, lenders, owners, managers, title companies, lawyers and the like. These groups are all a part of a typical transaction. Maintaining, growing, and nurturing these relationships provides us the inside track on investment opportunities we seek.
We strive to be a fiduciary and to do what is best for our investors. Doing what is best for our investors is finding the best acquisition opportunities, while understanding the day-to-day changes occurring in the marketplace.
Even with our technological advancements, nothing beats the physical interaction that we continue to value in our due diligence process and in our relationships with our partners, our investors and amongst our team. We receive more opportunities and find the best deals because we are committed to partnership and creating win-win opportunities.
If you would like to learn more about how to partner with us, let’s connect.
Dan Price is a Senior Vice President at MLG Capital, focusing a majority of his time on acquisitions. When out of the office, he enjoys all things outdoors and is a sports enthusiast.
